The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three
by mel.wolfgirl
Summary: The butterfly landed on his nose. Her palm brushed against the soft fur of his muzzle as she whispered into his mind to not be frightened, that she wouldn't be frightened if he wasn't either. They could be not scared together. Nessie/OC Child Imprint Fic
1. Prologue

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Prologue

Since the Time Of Beginnings, there has always been the wolf.

It is the wolf that caused the Great Creator, the Transformer, Q'wati to flee through the lands from the wolf's jaws. It is the wolf's chase that caused Q'wati to spill his cup of oil, drawn from the bodies of the creatures of the sea, the oil running freely downhill and becoming the rivers and streams that the wolf must now cross over. It is the wolf's chase that caused Q'wati to drag his comb through the land, changing the shore into the steep seaside cliffs and the deep calm bays that the wolf must now swim around. And it is the wolf that Q'wati returned to one day and transformed into the Quileute people.

Amongst the Quileute, the courageous ones, there were those rare souls that were gifted with a spirit guardian, and in doing so, were allowed free entrance into the ceremonial societies of their people. One such society was that of the Tlokwali. Those of Tlokwali were those of the wolf.

The Quileute were a brave people, but a small one, numbering in hundreds when their enemies numbered in the thousands. They were a fierce tribe, who defended their own, who protected what was theirs, and who looked to the sea and the earth and the sky for wisdom. They were guided by the spirits in all manner of things. And perhaps it is that which drew the Cold Ones upon them, for it has always been the way of the fire to scorch the earth, and the earth to choke the fire, the spirit-filled destined to be consumed by the empty and spiritless. It has been said that if there were no Cold Ones in these lands, then there would be nothing for the Tlokwali to hunt, and should the Tlokwali decide his hunt is finally finished, perhaps the Cold Ones would fade away into the dust from which their hunger is born. It is whispered on the winds that the Cold Ones' hunger is endless, and thus too is the hunt of the Tlokwali. The spirit of the hunting wolf is restless.

As it has been since the Time Of Beginnings. As it shall remain.

There has been a hunt tonight, a successful one, and the sickly sweet scent of the enemy's burning flesh is still lingering in their nostrils. The Tlokwali are many now, few choose to grow old and allow their own spirit guardians to run with those of the times before, and as the Tlokwali's numbers grow, those of their people dwindle. It is said by the ancestors, who whisper into the minds of those who lead the Tlokwali, that the night the last Quileute draws his final breath, is the night that only the Tlokwali will remain. There will be no more of the humans that Q'wati transformed the wolf into so long ago, and it will be that night that the spirit of the wolf will be appeased, his hunt for Q'wati will cease, and the wolf shall curl up on the shores of this land and in sleeping finally know peace. Tonight will not be that night, for as long as the Cold Ones' steps freeze like frozen fire into the earth, the wolf spirits know no slumber.

The wolf spirits may know no slumber, but they know a good hunt, and they fly along the forest floor as if Thunderbird himself had given them wings with which to glide. They run hard, because there is no finer way to run, and the cool earth beneath their paws is only made better because it is earth shared with each other. In their minds they are separate, but in their thoughts they are one. And as the Qa'al, the Third, catches a faint scent on the softly blowing wind, he shifts towards the north on a new hunt, towards the lands of their enemies, the Makah.

Qa'al was an old wolf, only days younger than their Alpha, but deeply loved by the Tlokwali. So when Qa'al was curious, they glided at his heels and were content to follow where he would lead them, just as long as he would lead them at a run. The youngest wistfully hoped that when Qa'al was done being curious about this scent, perhaps he could become curious about the elk meat roasting on the youngest's mother's cooking fires? Tasi found it amusing, because the youngest's mother was still beautiful and their Qa'al was always distracted by beautiful women. Perhaps Qa'al wanted to adopt a pup that was already Tasi's? The Fifth didn't mind sharing, and the woman had turned Tasi out of her longhouse long ago.

The old wolf bumped Tasi's shoulder in gentle rebuke as the pup seethed, although Qa'al's tongue lolled out of his mouth in amusement as he dropped down to a lope. When one was as old as Qa'al, one has learned to love all things, and to find beauty in everything. If the youngest wished it, Qa'al would give the woman another look, but there would have to be looking another time. There was something they must do first. After all, the scent was of humans, a young woman and an even younger boy, barely more than a child, and their scents carried with them that of two enemies, the Makah and the Cold Ones. In Quileute lands, this could not be allowed.

Qa'al padded quietly through the forest, his Alpha's Pack at his heels, and when he reached the great fallen redwood where the pair had paused to take shelter for the night, he crouched in the darkness, observing. The fire they burned was small, gathered from fallen twigs and dried leaves as was the way of the Quileute people. The larger trees were considered "those-with-a-spirit", and part of that redwood was still alive, even as it slowly succumbed to its death. To have taken from it for fire would have been an insult, and a worthy enough insult for these two to have been killed, or at the very least driven from Quileute lands. But Qa'al didn't begrudge them their fire. He wasn't so old that he didn't remember the chill of the earliest winter freezes, or the bite of the mountain winds through his skin, or the pang of hunger in his belly.

The Tlokwali always felt the pang of hunger in their bellies. Perhaps the youngest's mother had enough elk meat to share? Qa'al hushed them and crept forward on his stomach further, inhaling deeply. They smelled of Makah cooking fires, but also of Cold Ones and that worried Qa'al. The pair should not have been alive, not if the Cold Ones had been hungry enough to make an approach. One more deep snuff caught the faintest trace of something else, and the Third understood. He rose to his feet and phased mid-step, never breaking stride as he slipped from the shadows into the light of the pair's fire. It was a skill only the eldest of the Tlokwali could achieve without landing on their human noses, but Qa'al couldn't remember a time when he was unable to do such. He was, after all, their second oldest wolf.

The boy was sickened, it was clear by the way he lay stretched out by the fire, covered in a woven dog hair blanket and trembling from fever. The woman wasn't sickened, but she was exhausted, and even as she kept the boy's head in her lap and hummed a Makah lullaby, she swayed wearily. Qa'al's nose told him what little food they had was recently consumed, and neither was in the state to hunt or even to gather what late fall vegetation was still around, meaning that soon they would starve.

His Alpha's approval of this decision slid over his bones, and he allowed that warmth to distract him momentarily. Then Qa'al deliberately stepped on a twig.

As if she had been shot by an arrow, the young woman was on her feet, a sharpened knife carved from deer antler clutched in her hand as she crouched in front of the boy. Her brother, Qa'al decided, their scents were similar and she was too young to have borne him herself. The woman let out a warning cry as he strode out of the darkness, and in the words of her people commanded him to get away, to leave them alone. She recognized him for what he was, a Quileute brave, her enemy, and one who could choose to kill them both if he wished. When Qa'al ignored her and took another step forward, eyes riveted on the trembling boy, she screamed and lunged at him. Qa'al's mouth curved into a small smile as the young woman attacked him, and he stood still and allowed it. Her knife broke on his skin.

Understanding dawned in the woman's eyes and she hit the ground, face buried in the dirt.

"Please," she whispered in broken Quileute, a language only spoken by their tribe and the Hoh. "My brother is sick. My mother told me to bring him here, to the…" She stumbled on the word, but Qa'al walked past her and crouched down, placing a hand on the boy's head. The boy stirred beneath it, and even as fever ridden as he was, he still managed to peer up at Qa'al through reddened eyes. His gaze was dark and fierce, but only for the moments before his eyes rolled back in his head. The women kept her face in the dirt, but he could smell her need for movement. She didn't like him over here by her brother, alone.

"You smell of the Cold Ones," Qa'al murmured, and she went still. Then the woman sucked in a tight breath.

"I took us too close to the mountains in search of food, but I had to. He was growing sicker every day," she whispered. "We were approached, but my brother…it took him two days to return to what he is now, and by then the Cold One was gone."

Frowning, the old wolf pressed a hand to the boy's heart. Not all that changed survived the experience, and those who did so alone for the first time with no Alpha to support them were often damaged, sometimes beyond repair. The steady beating of the boy's heart was reassuring, but only for the time being. Qa'al's presence would help, but not enough. This child needed someone greater than he.

"Please," the woman whispered a second time, and Qa'al looked over at her. The same fierceness was in her eyes, even as she knelt subserviently. "I'm to be a gift from our mother in exchange for accepting him. She would have come herself, but she was too ill to make the journey. I am Makah, but his father was…" She stumbled again, the word foreign on her tongue.

"His father was Tlokwali," Qa'al supplied softly. "And if he survives the ceremony, than he is as well." His sharp ears caught a stirring in the brush, his brothers growing interest at hearing this, and she must have noticed it too. The young woman said nothing, but he saw her reach carefully for the broken antler knife out of the corner of his eye. Qa'al tipped his head, and when she realized he was watching, the woman froze, then she glared at him and deliberately tucked the broken knife into her braided cedar belt.

"I am a _gift_," she said clearly in Makah, the firelight playing off her features. And when she turned bold eyes upon him, her dark hair a tangled sheet over her shoulders, she was stunning. Then she snapped her teeth at him and added, "I am a gift, but _never_ a slave. Not for you and not for any of those that conceal themselves from us. _I am my own_." Then she picked up a rock, as if it was a better weapon than her knife, and gave him a pointed look.

This time when Qa'al smiled, it was a full boyish grin that belied his age, although again he said nothing. It wasn't up to him what happened to her. A full blooded Makah woman on Quileute lands was a slave unless determined otherwise. The fate of the boy would tell, because if he was Tlokwali, then his sister was one of their own, to be guarded and protected and cherished. If the boy was merely sickened and didn't survive, then the gift of a slave was adequate payment for breaching their land. Their tribes would not fight over it, not more than they fought over everything else.

Still, as his wolves slipped out of the cover of the darkness at his unspoken command, lifting up the boy and bearing him away to the elders, Qa'al watched this woman who reeked of fear but tried so hard to stay composed beneath his gaze. It was a long walk home and he wondered if she had the strength to make it. Qa'al stood up and offered her his hand, but she refused. He took her hand anyway, hoisting her to her feet, and she pulled it back. He took her hand a second time just to tease her and got a rock over the head for his trouble.

It had been a long time since anyone had openly attacked him and Qa'al barked out a laugh. When she growled at him, this beautiful young woman _growled_ at him, he grinned again and took a step backwards, letting his other form rest over his bones with a crack of bone and magic. The woman stared at his animal form with huge eyes as he shifted mere paces away from her, and then he padded up to her quivering form. Quite carefully the old wolf took her knife between his teeth and out of her shaking hands. He'd give it back when she stopped attacking him.

Having nothing else she could do, Tuktukadi took a deep breath, let her eyes drift towards the mountains one last time, and then followed the brindled wolf to her new home.

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A/N Welcome to Book Three! For those of you who are new to my work, this is a series of imprint based fics that are extremely NON-CANON after Eclipse, although I do pull from some of the events in Breaking Dawn. There is no Paul/Rachel imprint and no Jake/Renesmee imprint. If you have never read my work, I know it is tempting to skip the first stories, but please, DO NOT READ BOOK THREE UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE FIRST TWO BOOKS. I promise this will make absolutely no sense, and you will get annoyed and frustrated with the story. My work is rated M for language, sexual references, and werewolf action scene violence. Lastly, this is a Jack/Renesmee child imprint fic, so if you can't handle a child imprint, please don't read this. There will be more Quileute and Makah vocabulary than usual, and I will translate some of the words that are not as apparent in their meanings, although some are more fun to let you guys figure out along the way. ^.^ _Tuktukadi_ is Makah for owl.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N Welcome to the third fic in this series! This will be a different feel than Book Two was and will hopefully be somewhat lighter in nature. If you missed the warning in the prologue, I'll repeat it. _**Please do not read this story without having read the other two**_. Some of you guys squeezed by with skipping Book One before reading Book Two, but at this point, there has simply been too much material covered. We're starting timeline wise two weeks after Seth and Paul bring Cassie back from Europe, and a big thanks to my beta LightIsPrecious, and also HopefulHeartache and StealthLiberal for all the plot hunting. Hope it's worth the wait. ~mel

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter One

The Cullens were hunting.

It was rare that they all hunted simultaneously, especially since Carlisle had been spending so much time in the hospital lately. However this night they hunted a sentient and dangerous prey, and in their hunting the littlest Cullen had been left at home. It wasn't unsafe, after all Alice kept one of her mind's eyes on Renesmee's future at all times, and their prey was more interested in circling close to the city of Forks then in coming towards their more secluded home. But just in case, Esme was running a smaller circle closer to the house, close enough that if Renesmee had even spoken loudly, her grandmother would hear. This was alone as Renesmee had ever been in her three years of life, and instead of sleeping like she should have been, the little girl was awake and doing her own hunting.

She was trying very hard to find something appropriately inappropriate to watch on the television, but she was pretty sure that neither the food network channel nor Cinemax would do. After all, she wasn't allowed to cook anything by herself, and she had just kept closing her eyes at the other channel anyways, which kind of circumvented the entire point.

Renesmee had read that being 'left alone' was when normal human children often took the opportunity to do things which they wouldn't otherwise be allowed, and Renesmee wanted very much to be normal. You see, Renesmee wasn't normal, which was why she had to practice so hard. She had spent the last three years practicing to be a vampire, it was what she was exposed to the most, and she could appreciate the crystal clear perfection in which every movement, every action, every decision by the vampires were made. Unfortunately, for someone who was only half-vampire, her own attempts at perfection were much more opaque. Her movements were graceful but not controlled. Her actions were controlled but not graceful. Her decisions, made only after having approached the matter from every logical side, were cautious enough to be neither. Her family had often reminded her to be herself, and it was something that Renesmee took to heart. She needed to be herself, which meant that she needed to be both a vampire and a human.

Unfortunately she was very bad at being one and utterly confused at how to be the other.

Her parents were used to her practicing on her vampire side, seemed to find her attempts at mimicking them to be childlike and endearing. However the longer her mother was a vampire, the more the family settled in again to having humans only peripherally in their lives. Choice of diet aside, they had been living as vampires for so long that their humanism was merely an act, a very successful act, but an act nonetheless. Renesmee was reminded every day the differences between herself and her family, and she would be lying if she said those differences didn't make her uncomfortable. She shifted in her seat because she was tired, they shifted because they needed to remember to do so in human company. She blinked because it hurt her eyes to go too long with doing so, they blinked because it was expected of them every so often. And being what they were, creatures that missed nothing, her involuntary human reactions were fascinating to them, never failed to draw their attention, never failed to be noticed.

Renesmee was learning how hard it was to not draw notice in a family that paid very close attention to everything one said and did, and supportive comments aside, Renesmee had been trying very hard to learn how to blend in. A hundred times a day she wished that she could be more like her family, even though logically she was aware that could never be completely possible. She was half human, and that would never change. And when one was the only creature in a house full of those with excellent hearing that actually used the restroom for the purpose in which it was intended, her involuntary human reactions had drifted quickly to being a source of acute embarrassment for her.

Esme had taken to restocking the toiletries items in Renesmee's rooms when the little girl was out hunting with her family, having been told by a concerned Edward that Renesmee was developing an unhealthy preoccupation with how much toilet paper, soap, and toothpaste her living body was requiring. She had been lectured thoroughly by Carlisle on why it was important that she let herself breathe as deeply as the wolves did when they were running, because hunting and getting dizzy from lack of oxygen were not an appropriate way to spend an evening. She had been chastised by her mother last month, something that had almost never occurred in her three years of life, when she tried to go an entire day without scratching a bug bite on her foot that itched terribly. She had been so uncomfortable that her father had panicked at the thoughts in her head and had been about to rush her to Carlisle, when Renesmee had caved and nearly in tears had fallen to scratching maniacally at her heel.

It was a little unfair to be grounded for the day for trying to be vampire, when she was told almost daily that it was good enough to just be herself. You see, Renesmee was two selves, two different natures blended seamlessly into one, and it took an extra amount of effort to be one's self when one was two. The only one who had come anywhere to understanding that thought was Jacob, who had merely taken her hand in his and told her that she was trying too hard.

Funny, the child had been pretty sure that she wasn't trying nearly hard _enough_.

The Cullens were hunting, and that meant that Renesmee was alone, completely alone, freeing her to go hunting as well. Seated on the deep couch in the living room, her feet nowhere close to being able to touch the floor, the bronze haired little girl held the remote and clicked through the channels. Since she had realized it disturbed her family to see her practice to be a vampire, and it required sneakiness to practice being a human, Renesmee had decided it was safer to practice both only in the privacy of her room. Or, in this rarest of occasions, when everyone else was gone.

She was trying to find something to watch that was considered inappropriate, but there were limitations that she had set for herself. After all, she didn't want her parents to become actually angry with her, she just wanted to appreciate the true "home alone" experience the way normal human children did. Every once in a while Renesmee reminded herself to kick her feet against the couch, and felt a little guilty each time. A bowl of melting ice cream sat on her lap, chocolate with chocolate chips and chocolate sauce, although the richness made it unappealing to her. Knowing the others were on a hunt, even if not for food, made her throat burn slightly, and chocolate was far from what that side of her craved. Her cravings had increased recently, and even though her family continued to use the phrase 'just a phase', the little girl wasn't sure.

Renesmee had eaten her oatmeal with blood that morning, staring down at the warm crimson flakes and wondering if there was something truly wrong with her.

Eventually the little girl grew tired of trying to find something inappropriate, and settled on something stereotypical. She was between eight and nine physically, so she turned to the cartoon station she hadn't watched since she was one year old. They were showing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle marathon, the old cartoon version where part of each episode was dedicated to the consumption of pizzas covered in bizarre food products. Renesmee had never had pizza up until a few months ago, when the Pack had found out and staged the Pizza Siege of 2010, where the Pack took much pleasure in making sure that garlic didn't melt vampires. Jake had chased Rosalie with a tub of garlic butter for an hour, finally managing to douse her when Emmett decided to play too and dangled her screeching and clawing by the ankles. If the wolves hadn't spent so much of their attention in trying to find out which pizza she liked the most, Renesmee would have enjoyed herself even more, but being the center of attention in that group was intimidating, so she had taken a slice of simple cheese and slipped away to eat by herself.

Carlisle had told her later when she got sick that the wolves had good intentions, but that they didn't understand. Renesmee was special and there was only so much of certain foods her body could handle. Renesmee thought it was sad that they had been so nice to bring her pizza, only for her to throw it up later, and when she had stopped retching she had called Jacob to apologize and offer to repay him for the pizza. She still wasn't sure why the wolf had stormed over and gotten into it with her father so badly right after that. They had made her listen to music with the expensive headphones, but she had caught the words "fun", "little kid", and "bullshit" coming from the Alpha's throat a lot.

Her mother had told her not to worry. Jacob had been under a lot of pressure since he had come home from Mexico. Renesmee wondered why the Alpha had taken the time to bring her pizza then, but even Bella couldn't answer that, and had merely murmured that Jacob loved them all, even Daddy, and not to worry. Daddy and Jacob had always fought, it didn't mean anything. Renesmee wasn't so sure.

Eventually the turtle marathon wasn't enough to keep her thoughts occupied. Renesmee tried but her mind was growing faster than her body, which was growing faster than it should, and it was hard to keep herself from overanalyzing the cartoons, to find their socio-economic and scientific flaws, and when one's head has decided that they are occupying themselves with trash, it was hard for her more childlike parts of her psyche to enjoy themselves. Wishing it was easier to like the same things that normal human children were supposed to like, Renesmee got up, taking her bowl of ice cream to the kitchen. She came back a few minutes later, settled in again carefully so that the slightly soupier treat didn't spill, and turned to the national news station. The discussion that night was on home foreclosures and the recent re-stabilization in some sectors of the housing market.

As she watched, Renesmee wondered how many people could have saved their homes from foreclosure from the money stashed in the guest room alone, and if she should encourage her family to donate more than their usual annual percentage of their wealth to help support the homeless. She wondered if it would insult them if she implied they weren't being generous enough. She wondered if maybe she could ask permission to take some of her own allowance to be donated at the local distribution centers, or if they would do it without her company, on the off chance that Renesmee might accidentally try to bite someone. She wondered if having not considering asking before now made her a bad person, a selfish one, or maybe simply an ignorant one.

She didn't like being ignorant. Renesmee had been told that education was very important, and only had to look at the displays on the walls to have that lesson reinforced. Her family was all very educated, it was what they spent their time doing, when they weren't out trying to hunt down the vampire her grandfather hated so much. Then they were swift, skillful predators.

The little girl attacked a chocolate chip, bring down her prey swiftly and skillfully, and then she giggled. Renesmee looked around, realized that no one had been there to notice her silliness, and then she relaxed deeper into the couch. She turned the volume up louder than necessary, after all, being loud was a normal human thing and she had her practicing to do. Renesmee may or may not have hunted another chip.

She was still eating her melted bloody ice cream, considering the possible ways for chocolate chips to cause an unrecoverable economic collapse when her family came home, frustrated at the loss of their prey. Her mother and father both hugged her and told her they loved her, her grandmother dropped a kiss on her head and turned down the volume so it wouldn't hurt Renesmee's ears, and then they all went into the next room to discuss what was to be done. The little girl finished her ice cream, put her hands in her lap, and sat as perfectly still as she could, watching the news.

Renesmee only kicked her foot once.

* * *

Her foot slammed into the bag with a resounding smack of skin against nylon. He didn't even have to frown for her to know she had messed up.

"Again, Sims," Embry said as he paced around the backside of the bag, his eyes watching her carefully as the sweat covered girl regained her stance and sucked in a deep breath. The instinct to immediately perform another kick was strong, after all it was embarrassing for someone at her level to have done that move _that_ badly, but she curbed the desire to rush and steadied herself. The second kick should have been right. It _should_ have been but it wasn't, and she landed off, having to stagger sideways to regain her balance.

To Embry's credit, he didn't move to help her, but this time the handsome man did frown.

She was out of shape, badly out of shape, from a summer spent unable to practice properly. Runs and sit-ups and push-ups would only get someone so far, although to be honest, it should have gotten her further than this. Embry knew it too. She had been helping him with his classes all summer but he had only now allowed her to start training again, albeit reluctantly. Her arm initially had seemed to have been healing quickly, but a couple weeks after her fever broke, she had suffered a lot of soreness from it. And the rest of her…well, the rest of her was touch and go, some days fine and some days feeling every bit of what had happened to her outside of Calgary. Embry hadn't relented until every single bruise was gone, every cut was a scar, every ache softened.

Meaning he had only let her start training again in earnest two weeks ago. But still…she should be doing better than this.

"I know, I know," Samantha groaned, sucking in several breaths. "That was awful."

"Not awful, but your balance is wrong," Embry said in his instructor voice, walking over to her with that frown still on his face. "Watch me. You need to keep your weight like this." As Embry demonstrated, Samantha nodded, but inwardly she grimaced. She _knew_ this. She knew all this already, she was just off. Why she was off, was what she didn't know. But she still listened and watched him carefully, because Embry was good. Really good. And if Embry hadn't been stuck unable to risk sparring competitively, he could have been great.

"Try it again," Embry told her, and Samantha did as she was instructed. This time she landed the kick, although not with the power she was used to. Her muscles were weakened, and landed kick or not, she was still embarrassed. Her boyfriend, however, looked pleased. "Better, sweetheart, much better."

Samantha bit her sarcastic comment back, and offered him a disappointed smile instead. "Thanks," Samantha said, managing to mean it. Sarcasm fit her mood, but she and Embry had gone through enough that she wasn't willing to suffer any more misunderstandings. Her wolf knew her too well, and a large muscled arm hugged her briefly around the waist. Embry dropped a quick kiss on top of her head before letting her go.

"Martial artists that aren't practicing end up backsliding, Sims," he said reassuringly. "If you hadn't, it wouldn't be normal. If you're still in the same place next month, then we'll worry about it."

"Next month?" Samantha asked, raising an eyebrow. "I was thinking more of next week. Or sooner. How about tomorrow? Not sucking tomorrow would be good."

Embry chuckled as he took Samantha's left hand and started unwrapping it. She wasn't allowed to punch anything yet, one of the many things on the long list of concessions Embry had required from her before he "ever trained her to be more destructive again". Embry was still furious with her for breaking her arm to back Jake and the Pack off of him, and it was one of those things where they had finally been forced to agreed to disagree about. At least Embry's wolf was on her side, and Samantha wasn't sure if the reason Embry was so angry was that his wolf had appealed to her Pack-ingrained need to protect him, or that the wolf had seen her as an Alpha and capable of protecting when the human side of Embry was hell bent on being the one who protected.

He didn't talk about it much, but Embry and his wolf's differences in opinion was a constant struggle for him. Even now as he peered at her hand with contact covered eyes, Embry was using up energy in holding that balance, a balance the rest of the Pack maintained without even having to think about. It wore on him, she could see it in the slight drop of his shoulders when he thought she wasn't looking, but the smile he leveled at her when she leaned her hip into his own was beautiful.

"Hey you," he told her flirtatiously, and Samantha grinned when Embry kissed her knuckles and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She wrapped her arm around his waist, hugging him tightly.

"Missed you last night," Samantha admitted against his t-shirt covered chest. "Okay, technically I missed you this morning. It's weird going to sleep with you there and waking up with you gone."

Embry draped his arm over her sweaty shoulders and put his nose to her hair. "Sorry, you were finally sleeping okay for once, and I didn't want to wake you when it was time for patrol," Embry rumbled. He snuffed deeply at her short ponytail a moment, murmuring that the feeling was mutual, and then he released her and stepped away. "Do some stretches," Embry ordered, back in instructor mode again. "And make sure you hold them long enough, or you'll cramp up again like yesterday. And you're running short on time, Sims, school starts in less than an hour."

"Yes sir," Samantha chuckled and leaned down, her nose touching her knees and her hands flat on the ground next to her feet. Embry ambled to his desk and plopped down in his chair. After a moment Samantha felt slightly uncomfortable, and when she glanced over at him suspiciously, Embry made absolutely no effort at all to hide the fact that he was watching her, his grin widening. Her sports bra was modestly cut, but not in this position, and she grinned. "Hey Embry?" Samantha asked, bouncing a little before straightening up. "What's the likelihood that I'm doing these just to give you something to think about all day?"

"No clue what you mean, sweetheart," Embry said innocently, but when she flipped him off, Embry smirked and turned around in his chair, flipping open his schedule book. It wasn't nearly as full as it had been six months ago, he had simply been gone too much. Even with the elders spreading it around the reservation that Embry had been quite ill, he had lost almost a quarter of his students because of his inconsistency in being open, including one of his two other advanced students, Jessie. Samantha missed him, but she couldn't really blame the guy for finding another dojo. After all, without understanding why, Embry and now Samantha too seemed pretty unreliable. They had compensated by keeping the dojo open until nine every night, Sundays included, and much to Embry's disheartenment had started teaching step aerobics, a flatten your abs class, and even a beginning yoga class.

Making Embry teach the abs class shirtless had been brilliant marketing on Samantha's part.

Samantha finished her stretches, feeling Jacob start to wake up across the reservation. He had a habit of checking up on her a couple times a day, first thing when he woke up and last thing before he went to sleep, although it tended to wrench her when he woke up and grabbed the bond too hard. He had made her spill a glass of orange juice all over herself yesterday, and she had ended up coughing and sputtering as she choked mid-drink. Just to annoy him, Samantha tried to be as overly alert and cheerful as possible on her side of the bond, and the general feeling of intense grumpiness at being woken up too quickly was shoved back her way. Chuckling, Samantha trotted off to the bathroom to get a quick wet toweling off, the closest to a shower she could have when running this late.

Jacob was extra growly this morning, and Samantha was having a hard time not having her good mood affected. "Hey Embry?" Samantha called out to her boyfriend as she stripped and washed off. "Will you talk to me?"

"Jake being Jake?" his voice rumbled back.

"Yeah…"

Was Embry happy that Jake had imprinted on her? No. But he refused to pretend that she and Jake weren't imprinted, and he had made it clear that she shouldn't either. Jake wasn't the easiest wolf to be connected to, and his moods could swing wildly when he was worked up. The calm and caring Jake that the Pack and the rez saw were only a part of the Alpha. He also had a dark streak, and Jake could become deeply angry so quickly that Samantha couldn't prepare herself for it. Usually that anger was when the Alpha was exhausted or just waking, and after a few really bad and really confusing mornings, Samantha had finally admitted to Embry why. Instead of becoming jealous or concerned, he had simply chuckled and told her to be thankful she wasn't around a couple years ago. A phone call, and Embry yawning and telling Jake to stop being a dick so he and Samantha could sleep was all it took to snap the Alpha out of his funk. And usually her boyfriend's voice was all it took to help center herself when Jake relapsed back.

Funny, how learning to trust someone else was so difficult, but once done, made the world so much easier.

"Don't be too hard on him," Embry told her, his voice clear through the door. "He had to talk to Cass last night, and Paul and him got into it."

"Why?" Samantha asked as she pulled on a worn t-shirt and layered a thin hoodie on top of it so that Embry wouldn't see. "I thought they just got back and everything was better?"

"Jake put down an ultimatum that Cassie has to stay in the rez unless he specifically agrees otherwise, and that she's not going out of La Push or Forks ever. She's got some real bad guys after her family, and Jake's worried it'll put the Pack at risk. If she wants to leave, he won't keep her a prisoner here, but he also won't let her come back."

Samantha whistled between her teeth at that one. "I take it Paul didn't take that well?"

"Paul understands," Embry said, sounding sad, "He actually agrees, but Paul's pretty tightly wound right now, and Cassie started crying when Jake told her. She had told Paul that she wanted to start trying to find her sister, and this will mean she can't go see the few friends she had left in Seattle. Cass is pretty isolated out here, and even though it's only been a couple weeks, she's not adjusting very well. Paul asked Jake for some concessions about Seattle, but Jake wasn't budging. Paul knew it was a losing battle, but he still fought it for her, and it ended with Paul pretty angry."

She didn't know exactly what had happened in Europe, that was wolf information only, but Samantha had her suspicions. And if her suspicions were correct, Paul had a lot to be angry about, but Jake was well within his rights to decide what he had decided. Honestly, Samantha tried to stay out of it, unless deliberately drawn in. She only played Pack when she had to.

"Sims, are you ready yet?" Embry asked the girl in the dojo bathroom, where she stood fighting to get her lobed off hair to behave. "Sweetheart, you're going to be late unless you go in…two minutes ago."

"I have more time than I had told you yesterday, because I don't have to pick Chancy up, she has her own car now," Samantha stuck her head out of the bathroom and pointed to her head tragically. "You know those anime guys, the ones with the bowl cuts? That's what I look like, Embry. I look like someone stuck a bowl on my head and snip snip sniped. How exactly have you been managing to have sex with me looking like this?"

"I just close my eyes, honey," Embry chuckled as he continued checking his schedule. "I take it you hadn't noticed me wearing blindfolds to bed?" A wet towel smacked him in the face, one that may or may not have been wet because of sweat instead of water. "Eww," the wolf murmured, lobbing it back in the direction of the bathroom.

"That was mean, Embry," Samantha told him from where she stood in front of the mirror, but he could hear the amusement in her voice.

"That was a stupid question, Sims," he countered calmly, typing a few numbers into his calculator. "You're beautiful and you know it. Beautiful enough that I'm tempted to lock the door and get you covered in sweat a second time, and maybe a third. But Chancy or not, you still should have left…" he checked his desk clock, "Four and a half minutes ago. You're going to be late."

She made a little grumbling noise and came out of the bathroom, her short hair pulled into a small ponytail. Embry smiled at Samantha and stood up, snatching her about the waist and hugging her tightly. "You know, I can take you to the Makah rez," he murmured, kissing her earlobe and inhaling deeply. "My mother wants me to come visit soon, and she does hair for a living."

"You want me to meet your mom?" Samantha asked, surprised, and Embry shrugged. A shy little grin played on his lips, and he let his hands drift down to squeeze her hips familiarly.

"Do you want to meet my mom?" he countered, and Samantha answered by wrapping an arm around his neck and kissing him deeply. The kiss went too long, got too heated, and like he often did, Embry forgot himself and entangled their fingers. Samantha tried to bite down on the yelp, but Embry had already released her left hand, cursing. "Damn, I'm sorry, sweetheart."

"Not your fault," Samantha shrugged, but she tucked her left hand into her jeans pocket to get his eyes off of it. The nails grew better out in the open, but there was no keeping her Pack and especially her boyfriend from staring at what they considered constant proof of their failure to protect her, so she usually kept her fingers wrapped. If not, in the pocket her fingers went. Embry squeezed her wrist, tugging lightly on her arm, but she kept her hand in her pocket, and he made a rumbling noise in his chest when she ignored a second tug. Samantha turned and headed back to the bathroom, and when she returned, her left hand was back to making her look part mummy and it was once more back in her pocket. Embry still stared at her wrist unhappily.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," he growled lightly, "It heals better when you don't."

"And you heal better when I do," Samantha said and then she grinned at him cheekily. "We can bargain if you want to. I'll let you stare at my ugly hand if you'll let me do that thing," Samantha countered, waggling her eyebrows. "You know, the _thing_."

"You're not allowed to watch porn with Jack ever again," Embry growled, nipping her shoulder once as she snickered. "I didn't even know he knew what that word _meant_," he added, shaking his head.

"He can spell it, too," Samantha grinned. "It's very impressive. And you're right, I do need to go. I'm running out of my built in Embry goodbye time, and I actually will start being late."

"Built in Embry goodbye time?" Embry raised an eyebrow and Samantha nodded smugly. He barked out a laugh at that, and then nipped her again, this time on the neck. "Have a good day, sweetheart," Embry told her fondly. His contact tinted eyes gazed warmly at her, a chocolate brown not nearly as beautiful but much less disconcerting than his true mottled eye color. Embry popped her on the hip and grinned. "Then get your ass back here and have a better one with me."

Samantha smirked at that and shouldered her book bag. It was in better condition today than it had been two days ago, before Sue had gotten all flustered when she'd seen it and paid Samantha off with cake to let her sew it back together. Sue drove a hard bargain, Samantha had no choice but to cave.

"I have community service after class," she reminded him as she walked backwards towards the front door, and Embry rolled his eyes, even as he followed her. Embry was the only one that could get away with hunting her, and Samantha slowed down a little to make sure she could get caught one more time.

"You've completed the hours," he murmured, hands spanning her waist as he hauled her in close. "You don't have to, you know." He didn't trap her against the door, Samantha…didn't do very well with being trapped against things these days, but she did very well being tucked in close to Embry, a fact he used much to his advantage. She hummed happily, touched her nose to his throat the way she knew he liked, and then she smiled.

"Feels weird if I don't," Samantha admitted, quirking a smile. "Like I don't care enough if I'm not contributing, trying to help the community."

Embry chuckled, and her rear end got another squeeze as he rumbled in her ear. "You know, there are certain members of the community that need more help than others…," he said suggestively, and Samantha grinned as she started getting pulled in even closer.

Her phone rang, and Embry and Samantha groaned simultaneously. Sometimes she was pretty sure that Seth timed this shit just to annoy her, after all, the guy was standing two feet away from them on the other side of the dojo door.

"Good morning!" Seth declared cheerfully, his voice in her phone a half second behind the voice on the other side of the door. "I know it's a good morning because Mom bought doughnuts. Mom only buys doughnuts on good mornings, and so I wanted to share. Of course, the doughnuts will be less delicious if barfed all over you two getting freaky on the dojo floor, which by the way could probably use a good disinfecting, so this is my courtesy call."

"Hold on a minute, Seth," Samantha said into her phone, then pressed the receiver against her hip to muffle it, knowing full well it wouldn't do any good. "Hey, quick question, Embry. Is an extra few minutes of putting up with Seth worth it for delicious bakery goodness?"

Embry thought about it for a minute.

"What kind?" he finally asked, nuzzling her temple and gently pulling her left hand out of her pocket and ignored the indignant noise his Beta made. This time when he entwined their fingers, he did so more gently. Samantha smiled at him, shifted so that she was leaning into his side the way he liked, and then she put the phone back to her head.

"What kind of doughnuts are we talking about here?" she asked, and Seth made a production of rummaging through the box as he propped it up against the door.

"Hmmm, I ate the glazed already. And the chocolate covered chocolate ones," he admitted. "We've got four sprinkled and a cake."

"No go, Sims," Embry shook his head. "That's not a fair bargain."

She snickered when Seth made a sad sighing noise over the phone, the Beta wondering loudly, "Why is it that no one likes cake anymore? Now it's all about the fancy doughnuts. What happened to the good old standards?"

A whiff of something caught Samantha's nose and she bailed on Embry, jerking the door open and colliding with the bright pink doughnut box. "Apple fritters!" she crowed happily, snagging the large lumpy doughnut from the box and stuffing one side in her mouth. Seth raised an eyebrow, and Samantha blinked, then she blushed and swallowed. "Sorry," she mumbled, a little embarrassed, although Embry was laughing as he reached over her and snagged the second apple fritter.

Seth watched that motion, then shared a look with Embry, a look that Samantha pretended she didn't know what it meant. After all, it was kind of humiliating that Embry was the only one of the male wolves that could reach over top of her when she wasn't expecting it without causing a mild to moderate panic attack. There had only been one full one, but Samantha chose not to think about that. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

Mind over matter, dammit, no victims here.

She really did have to go, so Samantha waved at Embry, caught the keys he tossed at her, and then she trotted out to the truck with Seth and his box meandering behind. The Beta dropped his book bag on the floorboard and hopped into the passenger seat. Apparently she was taking him to school today. Samantha chuckled when the large wolf began picking all but the red and orange sprinkles off of one of the doughnuts as Samantha convinced the ancient engine to growl to life on the second try.

"You're making a Chancy doughnut, aren't you?" she teased as she finished eating her own, and Seth shot her a grin as she hooked another sprinkled doughnut and a napkin from the box. She balanced it on her knee on the napkin, not eating it.

Seth blinked at her innocently. "What makes you say that?"

"Weekly conversations involving a very confused friend. Mostly centered around why you called her from Europe at least three times a week for two and a half months. She knows you're not interested, so she couldn't figure it out."

Seth frowned at that, and gave his Chancy doughnut back one green sprinkle because it looked nice contrasting with the other sprinkles. "Who says I'm not interested?"

Samantha tipped her head to the side, glancing at him curiously. "_Are_ you interested?"

"I'm not sure. I know that I like to talk to her," Seth said, and then a smile played about his mouth. "And she has nice parts," he added, placing the Chancy doughnut on a napkin on the dashboard and moving on to eat the other ones slowly.

"That kind of sounds like a serial killer answer," Samantha snickered, kicking his ankle, and Seth grinned and playfully kicked her back. Samantha winced and stuck her tongue out at him. "_Ass_, that hurt."

"You're getting wussy, Bunny Lop," Seth chuckled, reaching over and squeezing her bicep. "I watched you deck Embry three months ago hard enough that it hurt him. Now you're all weak and flabby. What's up with that?"

Samantha was _not_ flabby.

Seth sighed contentedly and settled back in the seat, the pink box empty and the Chancy doughnut balanced on his stomach. "I love that glare. It's so much better than when you get all zoney."

"I don't get all zoney," Samantha countered, and Seth started snapping his fingers in front of her nose, making her have to swat at his hand to clear her eyesight. "Seth! Lord, you are annoying! I actually missed you this summer, and I am definitely seeing now the error of my ways."

"It's because I'm the Beta," Seth shrugged. "The imprints always love me the most."

"I think Jake stole Kim and Emily back while you were gone," Samantha said with a tiny smile. "Did you know he takes them bowling every week? Just the three of them, and he Alpha orders Jared and Sam to go away? They get so annoyed, and Embry thinks it's hysterical."

"Jake used to take both of them to the movies, and Claire too, and order all of us away," the Beta grinned. "Quil would get extra upset about the harem jokes, and lecture and lecture about everyone already having the wrong idea and Jake only making it worse. Good times."

The Beta lapsed into silence and then after a few minutes gave up and ate the Chancy doughnut. Silence wasn't like him, so after a while, Samantha kicked him again, and Seth looked up at her. His handsome face looked oddly vulnerable, so her wisecrack died on her tongue. Instead Samantha touched his arm lightly.

"Seth? Ayásocha?" she asked softly, and the Beta exhaled heavily.

"Wáli ťàcha á," he mumbled back. "Xilá li."

Samantha chuckled at that and patted him on his broad shoulder. "Seth, you grouchy is most people on a good day. It's because you have to go back to school, isn't it?"

The Beta didn't answer right away, and then he picked up his book bag and wrapped his arms loosely around it. For a second he looked like the eighteen year old kid he was, his face frowning and just a touch petulant.

"It's just bullshit, you know?" Seth grumbled. "I mean, I understand the rumors, and I understand that we just need to let them roll off our backs. The steroids thing has always been kind of funny to me, actually. But I worked really hard to not have to come back here again, and it sucks that because _all_ of us were gone, that they're _making an example_ of us. It's not like we all failed _all_ of our classes, and I should at least be on half days."

Samantha looked at him in surprise. "They're making you go full days?"

"For one semester, and then I can be done," Seth told her, sighing and picking at the peeling Spiderman decal on his bag. There was a fresh logo patch on the side, Samantha and Leah had stolen the bag while Seth was gone and added it as a surprise, and he tapped it with his finger before sitting up straighter. "I guess it's not the end of the world," he decided. "I'll be in some classes with you, Bunny Lop. I'll just cheat off of you, so it won't be like I have to work very hard."

He looked pleased with this, and Samantha rolled her eyes as she pulled into the school parking lot. She was getting better parking this truck, and only almost hit the shiny motorcycle in the space next to hers. She grabbed her book bag and the extra doughnut and slid out of the truck with more enthusiasm than Seth, who merely tumbled out with a resigned groan. They were slightly late, so she hurried over to where three wolves sat waiting on the front steps, one looking like he had just rolled out of bed and was grumpy as hell, and two looking like they were already completely discouraged by the prospect of starting their sophomore years over again. The other students were staring at the huge boys, especially Jake, and were actively staying a few feet away even as they passed.

"I'm the only one around here that likes school, huh?" Samantha murmured as all three looked at her simultaneously. They did that sometimes, the Pack mind connecting their actions even in human form, and Samantha hesitated a half step and slightly stumbled. Even in her own Pack, she was instinctively wary of their attention all on her at once. Seth's arm around her shoulders, his momentum carrying her forward was smooth enough that no one would notice her momentary misstep, and Samantha shot him a grateful look.

The Alpha however was glaring at her.

"You almost killed my bike, Samantha Carter," Jake grumped as Samantha smirked and ducked out from under Seth's arm, and almost unconsciously made the decision to resist the pull of being closer to the Alpha's side. It was a choice she had to make all over again every day, but it wasn't a hard one for her. She knew who she wanted, and Jake didn't give her any indication that he felt any differently. Collin was looking with interest at her doughnut, which almost hit the ground when Seth decided he wasn't ready to be ducked yet and hooked her again, squashing her to his side.

"Erg, Seth, you're choking me," Samantha managed to get out, then she beamed at Jake. "Your bike got in the way of my truck, Jacob Black," she said, "You should learn to park better."

"Me?" he growled, but then the Alpha barked out a laugh as Seth playfully hoisted Samantha up and spun her in quick circles, in punishment he stated for picking on the Pack's Alpha.

"If you make her hurl, I have dibs on the doughnut," Collin declared, but Seth had dropped a dizzy and cursing Samantha down to her feet, and she was wobbling in Brady's direction. She plopped down next to the young wolf, gave Collin an innocent look, and quite clearly handed Brady the doughnut.

"How the hell is that fair?" Collin demanded, and Brady just grinned at him and broke off a small piece, handing the rest back to her. Samantha took his small piece and gave Brady back the majority of the doughnut, chewing happily as Brady shoved the rest into his mouth with a contented sigh.

Brady swallowed and smirked at Collin. "That tasted awesome," Brady told Collin, "You know, just in case you were curious."

"You're a dick," Collin decided, "And you're a traitor," he added to Samantha, hopping up and stalking off. Collin actually looked pissed, and Samantha watched him go in surprise.

"What's his deal?" Samantha asked as Brady licked his thumb clean and looked around hopefully, sniffing deeply in case someone was concealing another, perhaps invisible doughnut. Alas no invisible doughnuts could be found, but Brady seemed more alert than he had a moment before, and a touch happier.

"He's been stalking Paul and Cassie," Brady answered her in his low quiet voice, because Jake and Seth were busy having another one of those annoying silent conversations that left the rest of them out of the loop. "Paul told him to back off, and it hurt his feelings. That's why he's acting like a little bitch."

Jake gave Brady a disapproving look, and Brady shrugged as he stood up and grabbed his bag. "What? He is. He always gets butt hurt when Paul wants some time to himself. Collin will get over it." Brady's words were a little harsh, a lot of what he said was harsh these days, but he headed off in the direction opposite of the school building, the direction that Collin had headed. Harshness aside, his loyalty was as strong as ever.

"And then there were three," Samantha murmured, and she too stood up. Glancing at her watch, she saw that she had five minutes to get to class, enough time to find Chancy. She waved at the two wolves and trotted inside, almost colliding with a dark haired beauty who was heading out of the doors at the same time. The girl sneered at Samantha, who merely smirked and moved past, snickering as the girl made a beeline for the two boys that had moved to follow Samantha.

She was perfectly happy with pretty girls running interference for her, if last year's stalking in the halls of school was any indication of how they would behave this year. Samantha was the Alpha's imprint, so it would most likely be worse when they weren't all so preoccupied with feeling sorry for themselves. It was her day of freedom and she relished it completely. Samantha's ears somehow managed to catch Jake's groan and Seth's chuckle when the dark haired beauty started grilling them about Jared Qahla, and then she ducked down a side hall, spying that familiar orange hair.

Samantha caught up with Chancy as the other girl was fighting with her locker. This school wasn't the most adequately funded, and half the lockers needed replacing, but usually a good jiggle and they were free. The girl currently declaring World War III was finding the jiggle method to be less than satisfactory and was trying to coax it into opening with threats of mallets and crowbars, although the locker didn't seem to be taking the redhead very seriously. Chancy had filled out a little bit this summer, but she was still just as pale and freckled and not Quileute as she had ever been, and as always, it was refreshing for Samantha to be around someone different than herself. The diversity of Chicago had been one of her favorite aspects of the city, and it was frustrating to be surrounded by only one ethnicity, one way of life, especially when that way of life was gradually sucking Samantha in directions that she had never planned on going.

Samantha grinned as she leaned back against the next locker over, watching the battle with interest, and pretending that the pair weren't getting stared at and talked about. Someone mentioned a specific name that cut Chancy off mid-curse, and the redhead dug into her pocket, smirking at Samantha, who was sighing. Did they always have to start this shit the first day?

"Oh my god, did you hear who rode with Samantha Carter to school this morning?" Chancy asked loudly, her green eyes sparkling as she grinned around her lollipop and handed a second one to Samantha before trying once more to force her locker open.

"_Seth _freaking_ Clearwater_," Samantha whispered back dramatically, unwrapping her lollipop and smirking at the group of girls a few lockers away staring at them. "I heard she's totally nailing him behind her boyfriend's back."

Chancy gave up with her locker, and gave Samantha a look of appeal. Samantha smacked the heel of her hand right above the lock and it popped open. "Thanks," Chancy said gratefully, grabbing out the pencil she had forgotten in there, and then she raised her voice. "_And_ she was nailing him behind her _best friend's_ back! What a _whore_!"

Samantha blinked as the whole hall went quiet and then snickered when Chancy blushed a little and dropped her voice. "Was the whore comment too much?" Chancy murmured and Samantha grinned.

"I'm been called worse," Samantha decided as Chancy used both hands to try and close her locker back up by grunting and pushing.

"You know, I'm starting to doubt the whole equal and fair distribution of educational funds that they always talk about on the news," Chancy grunted, trying to make the locker latch back closed by throwing her shoulder into it aggressively. "Stupid…freaking…locker…die locker, _die_!"

"Hey shorty," a male voice rumbled sexily behind them, and Chancy went scarlet. Seth had been wrapped up in Pack business these last two weeks, and running extra patrols to cover for the now unemployed Paul, who needed time to find a new job. This was the first opportunity that Chancy had seen him, and Samantha was pretty sure Seth had timed it to be able to come to her rescue. Unfortunately, Chancy looked humiliated at having been caught by surprise like that, if her tomato colored face was any indication. So Samantha winked at Seth, smacked the locker again so it latched without his help, and then grabbed Chancy's arm, hauling her towards their first class.

"No, we won't have a threesome with you, Seth!" Samantha declared loudly, grinning as Chancy let out an eep of horror.

Samantha had a better feeling about this year. This year she had friends, she had Embry, and she was pretty sure that she could learn to live with Jake and being so entrenched in Pack. Seth's baritone laughter followed them down the hall as Chancy eeped again and was pulled into their first period Quileute Cultural History course. In the back of the room she saw a tired looking Jacob Black, his huge body stuffed into a tiny desk, and his limbs far too long to try to fit in his designated space.

The Alpha was staring at the ceiling in misery, as if wishing someone would beam him out of there and away from the not one, not two, but _three_ cheerful girls that had plopped themselves on top of his desk, all babbling away about everything poor Jacob Black had missed this past year. It was always the Beta's job to rescue the Alpha, so Seth tickled one as he snatched her off of Jake's desk, the girl shrieking in pretend dismay. Seth happily grabbed another, dumping both on top of the desk on Jake's right, Seth's designated place in life. The third made a bolt before she too could be stolen away, and Chancy rolled her eyes as the two girls giggled, Seth declaring loudly to the classroom that this would only be better if Chancy would get her cute little ass back there and join them because this year was designated to be the naughty one. Jake was grateful and amused, and it carried over into Samantha, making her smile and feel good as she reached for her notebook, the teacher walking in without warning.

The school year started off with Seth Clearwater getting sent to the Principal's office for "spanking the head cheerleader and being spanked in return" while in class, and Jacob Black being sent almost immediately afterwards for "unruly and inappropriate guffawing". Samantha just grinned.

Oh yeah, this year was going to be so much better.

* * *

There had been a time when he had walked this path, thinking that life simply couldn't get any better than this. Centuries later, he simply walked this path.

The winds were quiet today, only a small breeze brushing over the man's jaw was willing to share its secrets. The plain featured man closed his eyes and listened, for after all, even the small ones had their stories to tell. This one only told of the last hint of the rainstorm that had passed, and of the tangy scent of wild onions just past those redwoods. It told of the summer ending and the great winter winds gathering, and how the breeze was soft and mild, unwilling to draw winter's attention and get lost within the massiveness of its cousin. It whispered its concerns across his brow and over his closed eyelids, seeking reassurances that one such as he could not give. Instead the man merely listened, contented in his role as confidant.

He had the time. It was a long walk from La Push to Hoquiam.

Jack had a car, but along with many technologies these days, he wasn't comfortable using it. Driving was one of those things highly dependent on one's ability to read the signs around them, and considering the fact that Jack refused to learn, his driving was…dangerous at best. Jack had no more desire to kill someone with a half-ton piece of steel then he did to kill them with his own jaws, so he walked, and he watched the world changing around him with every slowing step. A thousand years had taught him that there was nothing to hurry towards anyways.

The dirt road winding through the trees was getting rougher, and as he padded along on bare human feet, Jack unconsciously made sure each step landed precisely in the way to disturb the earth beneath him the least. Walking silently was more than a lack of noise, was more than an ability to allow oneself to sneak closer to one's prey without alerting it. No, it was much more than that. It was about passing through the world as an observer, understanding the earth and the sea and the skies for the life givers that they were, it was about respecting the spirits of those elements, and leaving them untouched and pure. It was about appreciating life.

There was a crumpled beer can on the side of the road next to a pair of fresh tire tracks. Well, it wasn't that surprising that a vampire didn't appreciate life as much as the old wolf had learned to.

Jack quietly bent down and picked up the can, squishing it until it collapsed upon itself and then stuck the can in his back pocket. His jeans were in rougher condition than normal, running with his new Pack had been harder on his clothes. For a very long time, Jack had been a lone wolf, and for a very long time of that he had…not been himself. Sometime around the turn of the last century he had been convinced that maybe being dressed instead of furred would help him, but he stayed like that so rarely that his clothes got little true wear. However his new Alpha seemed to feel that it was unhealthy for Jack to spend more time as a wolf than as a human, and strapping his clothes to his thigh to accommodate that was as hard on Jack's clothes as it was on his mind. After all, it had been a long time since anyone had told Jack what to do.

The old wolf was trying, though. He was trying very hard to do what his Alpha wanted of him, so even as his muscles burned with the need to phase and travel this road on four feet instead of two, he merely tugged on the collar of his uncomfortable feeling t-shirt and continued walking. Home was only about a mile or so down the road, and he hadn't been there since they had returned from Calgary at the beginning of the summer. He had stayed on the ancestral borders of their land, fiercely guarding the reservation and his Pack from outside harm, including those of the new Calgary Alpha. He had not felt comfortable leaving until both the Beta and the Third had returned, the small blonde imprint in tow. The fact that multiple Packs left Jack miserably unsettled didn't mean that he was ignorant to their risks. Lone wolves were always very much aware of the dangers posed by the larger packs around them, and Packs were no different.

The man and the wolf, the human and the beast, were not as divided as his young Packmates might wish to think. Jack would know.

Jack would know, but Jack didn't like to remember, it made the ever present murmuring in his head shift a notch louder, and wincing he brought his attention back to what was at hand. Tire tracks meant that the vampire wouldn't be alone, and that always was cause for alarm. Just because that one would rather make love to his dinner then consume it, didn't mean he was lacking in appetite. His appetites were simply more all-encompassing than just thirst. Just as Jack was old, that one was too, and had developed a greater appreciation of the world around him. And as the vampire regularly reminded him, few things were as easily appreciated as a cold beer in his hand and a nicely rounded woman in his arms. But a vampire was a vampire, no matter how good their intentions, and it was something that Jack had learned the hard way. The man that had been his friend for several centuries had also been a murderer for at least as many before that.

One of these nights, one of those girls wouldn't make it home. Jack wasn't looking forward to that night, because a man with only one friend doesn't relish the thought of killing that friend. The ancestors thought that Jack should have killed the vampire the day they met, and they reminded him softly of his betrayals, murmured almost lovingly in the back of his mind. The ancestors were busy now, too busy for him, too busy guiding one of their own home, but they'd remember soon enough.

Perhaps he'd pray a little longer for forgiveness tomorrow. Yes. That sounded like a good idea.

It was a good idea, all the way up until Jack walked around the last bend in the road to where Rico's old rickety travel trailer was nestled in a small clearing. You see, Jack had very good hearing, but he got…distracted a lot, and that was never a good thing around his roommate. After all, Rico had a bad habit of entertaining his guests outside of the trailer along with inside. Jack blinked, Rico gave a wave and a grin, and a busty redhead in a black cowgirl hat and ostrich skin boots let out a noise Jack was pretty sure he had never caused a woman to make before. He had to sniff deeply, blush, and then sniff again just to make sure Rico wasn't killing her there on the lawn chair out front. _Jack's_ lawn chair.

The ancient wolf sighed sadly. Now he'd have to find another place to sleep until the scent wore off.

"Jackie boy!" Rico called out happily, tipping his head to the side to see around the redhead's bouncing torso. "Long time no see! Hey, Bridget, you met Jackie yet?"

The redhead glanced over her shoulder, still happily bouncing away, and gave Jack a grin. "Yeah, we've met," she said breathlessly, giving him a wink before returning her attention to the blond vampire in the lawn chair. Jack was pretty sure that between two people, there should be more than three boots, two hats, and one interestingly placed belt. He was also pretty sure that he shouldn't be watching this, and if he had met her, he had certainly never met these parts of her.

"Babydoll, I know I promised you a couple more rounds," Rico said apologetically to the girl on his lap, "But can we wrap this up? Jackie's been gone a long time and I wanna catch up."

The redhead sighed but did in fact wrap it up, although with style and quite a bit of gusto. When she was done, Jack had tipped his head to the side in slight confusion, and even Rico looked a little surprised, before laughing and popping her on the hip.

"Well damn, woman, that's good enough for me," the vampire decided, standing up and grinning as a very pleased redhead swayed her way back inside the trailer. He watched her go, paused a moment to find his second boot, and then swaggered over to Jack, spitting once before gripping the wolf up into a huge hug. "About time your ass came back!" Rico declared loudly as he thumped Jack's back with enough force to have crushed another man's spine. Jack merely raised an eyebrow.

"You're naked," he said quietly, and the vampire chuckled, throwing an arm around Jack's shoulders as he headed back to the trailer and Jack's poor abused lawn chair.

"No clue what you're talking about, Jackie boy," Rico decided as Jack sniffed the second lawn chair and decided that it was safer than his own. The vampire disappeared into the trailer, someone made a pleased squealing noise, and then Rico was back with an already opened case of beer and a pair of boxers. He handed a bottle to Jack then plopped down in the wolf's chair, strategically draping his lap with the boxers before kicking his feet up on a stack of broken down wood pallets that hadn't been there when Jack had left. The vampire bit off the bottle cap and spat it, pleased when the bent piece of metal landed in an old coffee can set up against a tree twenty feet way for that specific purpose. It was disturbing how that particular skill set got the handsome vampire laid more often than anything else.

Jack didn't use his teeth, but beer caps couldn't hold up to wolf strength, even a single finger. When Jack tapped the cap lightly, it buckled inwards and he deftly caught it before the bent piece of metal dropped into his drink. The wolf leaned back and drained the beer in a single swallow, and when a second magically appeared in his hand, he did the same. He set the empty bottle next to his chair, thinking momentarily that there was perhaps a little too much casual nudity in his life. After all, the weather wasn't that hot, and vampires don't sweat, meaning that they don't need to wipe their brows with articles of clothing best left draped as they were.

The ancient wolf balanced his two caps on his fingertips and closed his eyes. He could hear the vampire next to him making his human sounds, a thousand tiny motions and actions deliberately done to give off the impression of animation. Rico was an old vampire, close to Jack's own age, and in that time Rico had perfected the art of human imperfection. To the point that he could consume human food and drink at his leisure, just to add to the guise. He always paid for it later, his deadened body wasn't equipped to process those sorts of materials anymore, but the vampire seemed to find incredible amusement in the end. And even Jack had to admit that watching someone curse and urinate pure alcohol while laughing his head off was kind of funny.

Sometimes Jack was pretty sure that he spent too much time with vampires.

"If you ask the vampire, you spend too much time with wolves, old friend," Rico chuckled quietly so that the redhead raiding the fridge inside couldn't hear. "You've been gone a long time, I was considering coming looking for you. I was starting to think those pups got themselves in more trouble than you could get them out of."

The vampire had dumped the wadded up boxers back on his lap and his head drooped lazily, the worn cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes. Jack remembered when that hat was brand new and sat uncomfortably on Rico's head. It had been a joke, perhaps a bad one but a joke nonetheless, and like everything he decided to try, Rico had embraced the cowboy persona with complete abandon and aggressive enthusiasm. Jack had regretted his purchase the day Rico had showed up in this spot, back then just a campfire and a small tent, with a bedraggled looking horse. There were four of them out back right now, munching happily on the late summer grass. That was good. Four meant that Rico hadn't eaten any of them.

"Naw, it's no fun without you to get pissed at me about it, Jackie boy," Rico drawled as Jack opened his next beer. It would take ten more for him to feel any effects at all from the alcohol, but somewhere along the line he had developed a taste for the stuff. Or maybe he had developed a taste for how drinking a beer when surrounded by people made him feel a little less alone.

Jack's gaze was pulled from the bottle in his hand to the tree line, where the foliage was growing thicker than before. There was a red apple tree a few feet off of the foliage, its branches growing stronger every year. It would stretch and spread into the sky until one day it would buckle beneath its own weight, and by the time it was eighty years or so, the tree would finally be gone. He would replant it, the way he always did. She had planted the first one. It would feed them when they slipped away to be alone, she had said with a wink as her strong fingers had placed the seedling into the earth. Her hair had fallen over her face, long sheets of black that shone in blue in moonlight, and he had waited until she had finished her task before reaching for her…

"What happened in Montana?"

The ancient wolf blinked, and then all he saw was an apple tree, its few remaining fruit hanging there silently. Jack closed his eyes, forced away the murmurs growing in his head, and drained this beer. Somehow a collection of bottles stood in between their chairs, and the redhead was snoring softly inside on Rico's bed. Jack glanced up at the sky and realized that the sun was setting. He had lost several hours this time. Frowning, Jack sat up a little in his chair, muscles protesting from being held still for so long.

"_Tupkuk_ happened in Montana," Jack said, his voice coming out gravelly and roughened. And angry. Always anger when it came to that one, although Jack could sometimes hide it. Rico made a grunting noise, and then spit another bottle cap.

"That little shit still running around?" the vampire asked, and Jack's frown deepened. The ancient wolf was silent for a moment, and then leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he watched a woman long dead relax in the grass, her smile soft as the warmth of the sun rolled down her brown limbs.

"He attempted to strip my Alpha of his rightful place," Jack said in a soft snarl, and the vampire raised an eyebrow. They had been friends a long time, but Rico wasn't the only dangerous one. Jack could tell he was trembling with long suppressed anger, and for the safety of his friend, he forced himself to calmness. The ancestors murmurs grew louder, pushing against his sense of collectedness, and Jack instinctively reached for his Alpha to steady him. He wondered if the Alpha would ever question the fact that Jack did so, so very often. He hadn't as of yet, and that respectfulness only sealed the ancient wolf to the young man even more. Jack had cast his loyalty, and it would not be changed. He was Jake's for whatever life he had left on this land.

"Did you kill him for that insult?" Rico asked, adjusting his hat, and Jack shook his head.

"I was not allowed," Jack replied quietly, although there was heat in his eyes, a deeply burning fire that time had never tempered. Jack hesitated, and then added something that he felt for the vampire's protection that Rico should know. Jake wasn't the only one who deserved loyalty. "Be wary, friend. He was given the Calgary Pack."

The vampire blinked, and then cursed, but if he was waiting for more, Rico wasn't going to get it. The vampire might know Jack better than anyone else in this world, but Pack business was between Pack, and Rico sighed. He always had been big on the latest gossip, and Jack always had been less than satisfying in his idea significant disclosure. "Well, that about sums it up, I would say," Rico sighed. "You know, I've still got a bad feeling about all this, Jackie boy. Fiji is still an option if you're interested."

"I don't tan well," was Jack's soft reply, and the vampire chuckled.

"Well, I guess were still stuck in the mud together, ain't we? But it's good to have you back, old friend," Rico sighed contentedly, inhaled deeply, and then wrinkled his nose. The vampire stood up and clamped Jack on the shoulder. "It's _mostly_ good to have you back, but I think I'll leave you to air out outside. I better be getting on back _inside_, Bridget gets lonesome."

Nodding, Jack waited until the trailer door was shut before he opened his next beer, and as he watched the last of the daylight slip into darkness, the ancient wolf decided that he knew the feeling.

* * *

The Alpha and his Beta arrived shortly before sundown, and Renesmee was sitting on the front porch waiting for them.

To Alice's dismay she was wearing the Redskin's hoodie that Seth had bought her when he and Jared had gone to a game last winter. It had been huge then, and was close to being too small now, but it had been a present from someone outside her family. Not only that, it had been a present from Seth, and Renesmee had loved it as such. The wolves looked serious when they arrived, but Jacob went straight to her, hoisting her up in his arms as he hugged her tightly to his bare chest. They had run here and both wolves were in shorts despite the slightly cool weather.

"Hey, honey," Jacob said with a bright smile. "Did you miss me?" Her hand against his neck assured him that she had, even if she had seen him a couple days ago. She had learned a new poem if Jacob wanted to hear it, this one wasn't as long as the last and he probably wouldn't fall asleep. Jacob chuckled at that and kissed the top of her head. "Sounds like _loads_ of fun, but we're here on treaty business tonight Nessie. Can I have a rain check?"

"Of course, Jacob," Renesmee said politely, pulling her hand away quickly so that he would catch her flash of disappointment. Jacob was too fast for her, though, or maybe he just knew her too well, because he caught her tiny hand in his huge one and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I _promise_, Nessie," the Alpha told her, and she smiled because Jacob always kept his promises to her. She didn't know why he bothered, some of them were incredibly outrageous, but he still did. Then Seth had stolen her from Jacob, and the Beta made a big deal about covering her face in big sloppy wet kisses, much like the dogs that her Aunt Rose liked to call them. Renesmee was giggling by the time he was done slobbering on her, and then Seth chuckled.

"Love the duds, Curlie-Q," the Beta told her, setting her down on the ground. The top of her head came to his waist, and Seth tugged one of her curls affectionately. "Did you have school today?" Her family homeschooled her, which was easiest considering that the older she turned, the more awkward around humans Renesmee had become. Plus, Uncle Emmett said it was harder for her to eat her classmates when she couldn't smell or see them.

Renesmee shook her head. "I finished my lessons last night, Seth." Because she wanted to learn a poem today, and maybe get to tell it to Jacob if he wanted to hear it.

The Beta sighed dramatically. "You deliberately did school work on a Sunday? Nessie, Nessie, what are they teaching you around here?" She opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again, realizing he wasn't actually asking. Seth grinned and patted her head, then he gave her an apologetic look as Jacob headed in the front door. "Sorry Ness, we can talk later, okay? I want in on that poem too."

She didn't know how he knew, and then she looked at her hand, where she had unconsciously pressed it to the Beta's kneecap. She blushed and pulled her hand away and Seth knelt down in front of her, his large forefinger tapping her nose. "Hey, Nessie?" he said kindly. "Just because you're a little smidge doesn't mean that we don't see you. If it's important to you, we'll listen to it _twice_, even if old man Edward tells us it's our bedtime." He added the second part in a conspiratory whisper and such an exaggerated look of sneakiness that it made her giggle, and from inside the house, her father chuckled.

"I know that, Seth," Renesmee smiled, and he nodded, tapping her nose one more time before rising and entering the house. Renesmee stayed outside for a moment, looking at the sun slipping behind the trees. A G2V star, 330,000 times the mass of the earth and 1,300,000 times its volume. Mostly made of helium, the first monoatomic noble gas on the periodic table of elements, and helium would show a bright yellow spectral line when observed with a spectrometer, although a simple prism would do. She knew why it burned bright yellow, why the rotation of the earth made it disappear beyond the curvature of the earth, and why it was important to protect one's skin from the harmful UV rays.

The little girl had no clue why the sun sinking into darkness always made her feel so sad, and so alone.

Renesmee missed the warmth the sunlight gave across her skin, and instinctively she followed the wolves inside, seeking their warmth instead. Jacob paused a half step and waited for her, maybe instinct on his part as well or maybe just kindness, and they entered the parlor where the others had gathered. Emmett and Rosalie had gone into town with Esme, but the others were all waiting for the two wolves to have arrived.

It was tempting to stay at Seth's side, or maybe her father's, but Renesmee quietly sat down on her chair in the corner and tried to be very still, hoping that they wouldn't decide to send her away to occupy herself with less serious matters. Her father glanced at her, looking undecided, but then he smiled warmly at her. Her mother however was watching Jacob, the way she always did when the Alpha was in the room, and Renesmee wondered how much of her father paying attention to her was him trying to ignore Bella paying attention to Jacob.

Her father flinched, and Renesmee immediately murmured an apology and slipped out of her chair, heading for the door. She knew she shouldn't be in here, if she was even inadvertently thinking things that could hurt her father. Jacob gave Edward a suspicious look.

"What was that all about?" Jacob asked as Renesmee made sure to shut the parlor door on the way out. She went up to her room and started to put on her headphones the way they would have wanted, but she stopped herself. For some reason, she was always interested in what was happening with the Pack, although that was probably because they were the closest to friends that she had. So she listened instead, and tried to justify it by pretending she was practicing on being more human.

"It's nothing," she could hear her father saying in a tight voice, and her mother's musical chime followed.

"Renesmee has been going through some changes, Jake," Bella explained. "And her physical and mental growth has been faster than her emotional maturity. It makes her uncomfortable in some social situations that used to not bother her, but Carlisle thinks she'll grow out of it. She's just in an awkward phase right now."

The Alpha snorted, sounding annoyed, but Jacob always got like that when discussing her rapid growth and at this point his words were almost to be expected. "Ness has spent her _entire life_ in an awkward phase, Bells. Have you just been figuring that out? She needs to be around something more normal, more-"

"We can discuss Renesmee's upbringing another time Jacob," Carlisle said smoothly, rerouting Jacob before he got going. "We need to discuss this situation."

"You mean the situation where you aren't giving us any information?" Seth wondered, sounding confused. "Just orders to kill the sneaky vampire?"

"Increasingly _worried_ orders to kill the sneaky vampires," Jacob exhaled heavily, having been successfully distracted by business. "Seth's right, guys. I'm all up for holding our end of the treaty here, you helped us a lot last year. But this fucker has made three passes through the rez so far, and we still haven't caught him because he always dives onto your side of the borders. You have to let us cross over after him."

Carlisle and Jasper shared a look, but it was Alice that spoke up in her lilting voice. "We can't, Jacob," she explained. "Every time you try to do that, I lose sight of him because of your presence. I can't lose track of him so close to Forks, it's too dangerous. As it is, when he goes through the reservation, I never know where he'll come out."

"He needs to not come out at all," Jacob growled. "I don't get it, why does he keep coming through our land? He knows we're there and he never seems to have a reason, he just runs around aimlessly. So what's the point, besides to prove he's a slippery bastard?"

The eldest Cullen sighed unhappily. "He's more than a slippery bastard, Jacob. And I wish that we could tell you more, but for the protection of your Pack, it's better for you to only be peripherally involved. I can tell you that his surname is Neel, or at least that's the only consistent name he's ever referred to as himself."

"What do you mean by _consistent_?" Seth asked, his voice growing more serious.

"Nomen extendere factis," Alice said softly, and Renesmee could hear her father translate for the wolves at their confused silence. "His name he gives himself changes depending on what his current interest is."

"Nomen extendere factis means 'the name matches the deed'," Jasper informed them in a bland voice, although Renesmee knew her uncle well enough to hear the concern beneath his tone. "It is the Neel family motto, taken with him from his first life into this second one. He's been in the history books more times that any vampire should be allowed, and not for pleasant things. The Volturi want him dead, he draws too much attention to his...exploits, and under different circumstances we would alert them to his presence. However, Alice has seen that bringing the Volturi here is impossible, that they take too active an interest in our coven and our allies, and it's not safe for any of us. We have other, more personal reasons why we want to take care of Neel ourselves, and he knows this. And we think he's going through the reservation simply to mess up Alice's visions of what he's doing. You said Jared heard him talking to himself as the Pack closed in?"

Jacob grunted, "Yeah, Jare said he sounded like a psycho and that he was talking in another language."

Carlisle made an affirmative noise in his throat. "French most likely, or possibly-"

"Please don't say Russian," Seth interrupted tiredly. "Anything at this point but Russian. And not German, I spent too much time in Germany, and I'm not sure I ever want to eat schnitzel again. Three weeks of nothing but schnitzel…"

The Alpha snickered, "Then why didn't you get something else?"

"Because the only thing I knew how to say was schnitzel," Seth sighed dramatically. "What the fuck was I supposed to ask for, gibbley gook with cheese?"

"I think Leah made that last Friday…"

"Really? Leah has been cooking again?"

"Not as much, Sue can't stomach it the way you can."

"That's probably safer."

Renesmee giggled as Carlisle cleared his throat and redirected the conversation back on track. "Most likely Neel was conversing in French, but he does have some Italian contacts in Chicago. The point is that he's using the Pack's ability to cause blind spots in Alice's visions, and has been doing so since you were in Mexico. Your wolf, Brady, was very fortunate he wasn't in direct combat with this one. Neel is a very old vampire, older than even myself."

"How old are we talking about here?" Jacob asked, and Renesmee could imagine the frown on her grandfather's face.

"Fourteenth century, possibly early fifteenth."

The wolves weren't as fast with the math, so her father spoke up. "Six to seven hundred years, we're not exactly certain. Enough to be dangerous. Very dangerous."

"What does he want?" Renesmee knew, but she wasn't allowed to talk about that. The silence was pointed, and Jacob sighed. "Okay, Cullen family secret. Again, very helpful guys. Do you have _anything_ we can use on this fucker besides he's old and he speaks French? Because that's not a lot to go on. Any superpowers or anything like you guys have?" More silence. "Well, good talk. We'll go try and make the most of that. Got it Seth?"

"Yup, just passed it on to Paul. He said thanks for the detailed descriptions, it was very enlightening." The Beta sounded amused by that and Jacob snickered.

Renesmee could hear her mother step closer, presumably towards the Alpha. "He's dangerous, Jake," Renesmee's mother spoke up worriedly. "Please tell everyone to be careful."

The Alpha's smirk was obvious in his tone. "You know, Bells, you keep saying this leech is dangerous, but you don't have any good reasons why. When you guys figure it out let me know." She could hear the wolves start to leave the parlor. Small feet hurried after them, and the wolves paused.

"Jacob!" It was Alice, and she sounded upset. "Jacob…he sired James. Neel was James' maker. He's the one that sent James after me when I was still human, the reason _my_ maker turned me and saved me from James."

That was enough to grab the Alpha's attention. "So this shit is about Bella?" Jacob growled dangerously, and Renesmee could almost see Alice shaking her head vigorously.

"No. It's about the entire Cullen coven, Jacob. _We_ killed James, and even though Neel stays solitary, that's makes this personal. Emmett and Edward and Jasper, we all helped kill James and that's not something that a maker takes lightly. He doesn't have any special powers that we know of, he's just…"

"He's a cruel bastard," her grandfather suddenly said harshly. "And this earth deserves to have him off of it. Neel has hurt people dear to me and he wants to hurt more. Tear him to shreds Jacob, and burn every piece. I'll considerate it a favor, one I won't easily forget."

Even Renesmee sat up in surprise, and the wolves sounded stunned. Carlisle Cullen never spoke like that, and never with such vehemence. It took Jacob by surprise, Seth too, and the Alpha finally cleared his throat. "Sure Doc, whatever you want," Jacob agreed cautiously. "I'll have the guys on high alert. Hey, can we go say goodbye to Ness? She wanted to read us a poem or something."

"Of course, Jacob, Seth," Edward said softly, sounding almost grateful. "Please stay as long as you like."

She had wanted to _recite_ a poem that she had spent five hours memorizing, but Renesmee didn't want to embarrass the Alpha by him having misunderstood. So as she heard the heavy footsteps coming up the stairway, Renesmee went to her bookcase and pulled out one of her poetry books, and she was waiting on her desk chair when Jacob and Seth piled in, their huge bodies and broad shoulders seeming to take up the entire room.

"Okay, Smidge," Seth said cheerfully as he dropped down on the floor at her feet, sitting Indian style and giving her his best look of attention. "Poem us."

Jacob had ruffled her hair as he walked by and then flopped himself heavily on her bed, laying sideways so that his feet and arms were hanging off, but his attention was all on her too, and he gave her a bright grin.

"If this one is in English, I promise to try my _best_ to stay awake the entire time, Nessie," Jacob told her with a wink, and as the two handsome young men both smiled and gave her their entire focus, Renesmee blushed. The force of their personality was strong, but she was happy they had stayed, and even happier that they had stayed just for her. The room felt warmer and just…_better_ already. Determined to make this the best poetry recitation ever performed, the little girl lifted her book and began to read.

It was in English, at least most of it, and Renesmee did her very best to speak in the cadence the author had intended. It was a poem that she could relate to more than most of the others, because it talked about the need for learning and Renesmee had grown up knowing that the pursuit of knowledge was a hunt whose prey she could happily sink her teeth into. Her mother loved poems for their imagery, but Renesmee loved words for their ideas and meanings. It had made her exceedingly happy to learn and recite this poem to her family earlier, knowing that she had found something to blend her and her mother's preferences together. Bella and Edward had told her how pleased they were, but for some reason it was really important to share this discovery with the wolves too, Jacob especially.

Renesmee gave it her all. So much in fact that she didn't realize until much later, as she had continued to read in her soft musical voice, the one not as clear and not as chiming as her family's, that in reading she had made a mistake. Lost in her attempts to put meaning to the words on her tongue, Renesmee had forgotten her audience and had ended up not noticing she was losing their attention. By the time she was done with the rather lengthy poem, even poor Jacob, who had truly tried his best to hang on, was snoring into her bedspread. Seth was leaning against the bookshelf and drooling, although to his defense it was only a little. Trying not to be disappointed, Renesmee closed her book, set it on her lap, and wondered what to do now.

She didn't know. She didn't know what to do now. The others were downstairs discussing things that she wasn't to be a part of, and she didn't want to bother them. And the wolves were sleeping and she didn't want to bother _them_. She could get up and leave, find something else to do downstairs, but they would be awake before she reached the door and then Jacob and Seth would leave. For some reason that thought really upset her.

Mostly because…well…she was lonely.

So Renesmee sat in her chair, and she learned the next poem, and hoped that perhaps Seth and Jacob would like that one better. Or perhaps she could tell it better this next time? Or perhaps she should pick another poem and learn that as well so that they would have options? Or perhaps…

Edward Cullen waited until his daughter's worried thoughts slowed to the quietness of slumber, and then he went upstairs and picked her up. He murmured thank you quietly to the two wolves, whom had woken up the moment he had reached the stairs, before he and his wife carried her off through the woods towards the cottage. At least the pair had tried to show Ness their approval, which Edward appreciated, because she didn't seem to register it from him or Bella anymore. His daughter's shell grew thicker every day, and to say that they were concerned was a severe understatement. Somewhere, he and Bella had gone wrong…no, somewhere _he_ had gone wrong. They had thought it was just a stage, and like all her other stages, they had waited patiently for her to grow out of it. Six months ago something in Renesmee had changed profoundly, and hell if Edward knew what that was, or what to do to change it back.

In that far corner of his brain, a place that wasn't connected to the deep aching in his heart, Edward Cullen was forced to consider the fact that perhaps there was something truly wrong with his daughter after all.

* * *

The white light of the moon slipped through the trees, casting deep shadows across these wooded lands. Paws digging into the dirt, the ancient wolf ran alone.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N Hello! Happy Halloween! Just to let everyone know, I'm planning on writing a Jared/Kim short fic for NaNoWriMo, and will be posting it on this site when NaNo is over. If anyone is interested in reading it in its unedited form, I'll post my work on my lj starting tomorrow. Also, I messed up last chapter, the hoodie Ness was wearing was a Washington D.C. team. *hugs mcc3654 for letting me know* Thanks as always to my reviews for the prologue: _82c10akaLynn, EssaTheTwerp21, Roonani, Manna1, dirtychicken, Buffyk0604, hilja, EnglishVoice, LucyPenny, Jacobleah, laurazuleta18, TeffieS, LightIsPrecious, MadToTheBone1, katieklutz, HopefulHeartache, ally leigh, _and_ moani-sama. _Also thanks to my reviewers for chapter one: _, LadyMonday, Roonanu, Manna1, hilja, dirtychicken, Buffyk0604, pinkshirt, EnglishVoice, mcc3654, Jacobleah, toalli, SARAH DB, laurazuleta18, KerryH, TeffieS, chickadee74, cylobaby, Ashes-Of-Grey, LightIsPrecious, QahlanKwaiya, HopefulHeartache, ally leigh, JasperBellaLover, StealthLiberal, esoteric desideratum, Negrinha, LucyPenny, _and_ InsanelyxLOUD_. Catch everyone laters!

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Two

_From the Time of Beginnings, there had always been an Alpha, one single Alpha, to lead the Tlokwali. In the days of Qa'al, that Alpha was T'sikáti, he of the land. _

_T'sikáti was the greatest Alpha of their time, and the times before them, and the times before that. He was the closest of them all to nearing the greatness of Taha Aki, the first Tlokwali, in both physical and spiritual strength. It is said that when T'sikáti ran through the lands, he was a swift as Thunderbird himself. It is said that with each rise and fall of his silent paws, the world trembled and changed, sheets of cliff side rock fell frightened into the ocean, the sea withdrew from the shore only to sweep back in great unexpected waves, and the skies filled with ash and fire. It is said that his gaze could slice through a man's lies even faster than his teeth could slice through a Cold One's belly. It is said that when he raised his throat to the sky, howling out the voice of their people, that even the spirits grew silent, and listened, and learned. It was said that through T'sikáti, the future of the Cold Ones would be changed forever, and that because of him their people would one day be free of fear for all of time and after. _

_Qa'al liked to chew on his Alpha's muzzle and ask him if T'sikáti was planning on meeting his destiny today, or if the great Alpha was planning on waiting to obtain even greater greatness after T'sikáti was finished with his nap. The greatest Alpha of their time often bit Qa'al in annoyance, but then again, Qa'al always had enjoyed a peculiar sense of humor around his Alpha, and there had never been a time that any of the rest of the Tlokwali could remember a T'sikáti without a Qa'al. _

_But they, the two eldest wolves of the Tlokwali, they remembered. Qa'al remembered T'sikáti back when he was just their beloved Wisá álita, their Happy Fish, and T'sikáti remembered that Qa'al used to get runny noses in the winter, and runnier noses when he was left to play by himself. After all, even the greatest of legends had their beginnings, and for Qa'al and T'sikáti, that beginning was swimming and laughing in the ocean and rivers of their homelands, with Wisá álita running and hollering happily and Qa'al in close pursuit, his short little legs pumping as he worried about being left behind. Lost to the centuries, no one remembered Qa'al birthed name, they only remembered the teasing words of their fathers, that Qa'al was Chibód, the fishhook, always trying to catch up with the fish. And the fish always paused and waited, for no matter how fast the fish wanted to swim, he was unwilling to leave his fishhook behind._

_It is said that the day Wisá álita met his wolf spirit guardian, and became Tlokwali, that Chibód grew lonely and heartsick. His father was no longer Tlokwali, and Chibód was destined to die a human man. Even the words of the fish to the fishhook, promising friendship and camaraderie from his next breath to his last, could not give Chibód comfort. Fearing the loss of his greatest friend, Chibód wandered out into the forests on a spirit quest and stayed there for many nights. He pled with the ancestors to give him wisdom and courage, to be one with his spirit and the world. And the ancestors refused, for they had never intended another of his line to become Tlokwali, but he pled for many days, and fasted for many nights, and finally lay dying on the forest floor, still whispering his supplications. _

_It is said that an old wolf who had lost his mate and pups that spring, found him dying by the frozen riverbank. The wolf was starving, but was lonely, and used the last of his strength to hunt for Chibód and himself. The rabbit the wolf caught was enough to feed one, but it was too little too late to feed two shrunken bellies. Chibód considered eating the wolf. The wolf considered eating Chibód. Instead, they lay curled up for warmth in the slowly freezing forest, and as one both waited to die, lonely no longer. The ancestors relented, and as both man and wolf were set to journey on to their next hunting grounds, the ancestors allowed the spirit of the dying wolf to enter Chibód's heart, and together they returned to their people as Tlokwali. Wisá álita was the first to greet Chibód, now his brother, with open arms._

_Together they ran for many many years, and as Wisá álita grew greater and greater, destined to become T'sikáti, Alpha and chief of their people, so did Chibód follow, destined to become Qa'al, always two steps behind. Always two steps behind, but Qa'al didn't mind. After all, his brother might be of the land, but was also a fish, and fish always were quick to slip out of his grasp. If he were one day to ever catch the fish, Qa'al knew he would have to learn to follow his nose below water, like only T'sikáti seemed to know how to do. _

_They had returned the Makah woman and her brother to the village, and preparations were being made for the ceremony. But the Alpha was needed, and as was often the case these days, T'sikáti had slipped away to be alone with his thoughts and his worries. Qa'al wasn't worried. He was pleased with himself this day. He was hunting Alpha now, because he needed a challenge after catching brothers that were changing and beautiful women that stared with flashing eyes. The Alpha didn't believe he would be caught. After all, T'sikáti was hiding. He was the Alpha, didn't Qa'al remember? So of course he hid the best. Considering that Qa'al could see a tail and two ears even as they spoke, the Third decided that he would have to hide his Alpha's attempts at hiding to retain his Alpha's dignity. Good friends did things like that. _

_The Alpha had been standing by the shore, his paws and muzzle submerged in the water as he was apt to do when no one was around. He was pretty sure that no one could see him, fishhooks thought they were clever to catch their fish, but only fish had eyes with which to see. And since no one was watching, the Alpha pounced on a rock and showed it no mercy, just because he could. _

_T'sikáti was Alpha, Qa'al thought with amusement as he padded up the shoreline, brindled paws sinking into the sand. They were always watching. As the Alpha snorted a bubble into the water, the Alpha thought that Qa'al must have found something better to do in all these years than to stare at T'sikáti's tail. Perhaps they could run, since the Alpha was growing fat and slow in his old age, and Qa'al sleek and fast in his own, and T'sikáti could stare at Qa'al's tail. The Alpha growled playfully, but Qa'al was already gone, flying over the sands as if he was hunting Q'wati himself. T'sikáti caught up as the rounded the headland, and together they ran side by side, the pride of their people, Tlokwali, brothers and friends._

_Soon their Beta fell in stride with them, and after bumping Qa'al playfully with his shoulder, Qa'al chuckled and slipped back a step, allowing their Beta to take his rightful place at their Alpha's side. After all, Qa'al was third, and that was enough for him. T'sikáti was pleased, Qa'al had found a new brother and they would hold the ceremony tonight. The Beta was uncertain. The Makah woman was unused to their customs and did not have enough gifts to grant the members of Tlokwali, to gain her brother entrance into their society. T'sikáti remembered when a new brother was gift enough. What the woman had would be enough. After all, she herself was the gift, was she not?_

_Qa'al didn't particularly like that thought. Unless of course she was the gift given to _him_, and then he liked that thought very much. Did T'sikáti know that she had hit him over the head with a rock? The Alpha barked out a laugh and ran on, unsurprised. Qa'al always had interesting taste in things, women included, and the older they grew, the quirkier he became. Perhaps Qa'al should settle down, take a woman as wife, make little Qa'als to run about on four paws and bite at Qa'al's tail? _

_Perhaps. As soon as the fish stopped swimming, so could the fishhook finally catch its breath._

_The Alpha eyed the Beta briefly and then knocked his own shoulder into the younger wolf, nipping the Beta's ears playfully. Perhaps the fish would stop swimming if his school would stop circling the prettier fish in their midst. With the distraction of the Pack's four she-wolves, two of which were fat with the Beta's wolfborn pups, the Alpha was pretty sure his Beta had spawned enough. The Beta could not be held accountable if their sisters found him so irresistible, the younger wolf insisted, and when they were in season, not all of them could plug their noses with sand the way T'sikáti chose to do. Why Qa'al himself last month-As the pair argued, Qa'al contented himself to listen, and to run, and to thank the ancestors for that which he had been given. And because he was Qa'al, they listened, and whispered their approval ever so gently in his mind._

_Together, the wolves ran on._

* * *

Something was wrong. Something was very deeply wrong. Unfortunately, Leah Clearwater was the only one who felt that way.

The she-wolf was prowling around the reservation, even though she should have gone home and crawled into her warm bed hours ago. She was pulling day shifts at the store to help her mother and night shifts on patrol to help the now increased number of wolves in school, and she was tired. It was fine, they all had their parts to play, and Embry was compensating her having to run so many nights by giving her the requested next three days off, and then weekends off after that. It wouldn't last long, though, only until Jared and Quil and now Paul it seemed took off for Alaska. So she should enjoy it, and take every single moment she could to rest and relax.

But Leah couldn't. Something was wrong, you see, and it was pulling at her, pulling her from her bed, driving her to search the reservation for answers, but no answers were coming. Not from the land and not from her Pack. For the first time in her life, Leah could understand why it frustrated her mother so much that the ancestors only spoke to the men of the tribe. A little help here would be appreciated, before she wore a path around their lands, unsettled and uncertain as to why. Just like her mother had said would be the case, when Leah spoke to her people's ancestors, they only listened and never answered.

It was…annoying.

Last night Jake had reminded Leah that trying to bite the ancestors in her head was making them tickle in his own, and to calm down. His choice of phrasing had gotten his ears chewed on for a while, and not gently, and Jake had been batting at them with his paws in annoyance ever since. Paul had let her chew on him just because their Third was growing more comfortable in teasing their Alpha, and Leah had appreciated that Paul didn't whine in the process. She'd miss him when he was gone.

Jake and Seth wondered if maybe that was why she was worried. The three would be out on the ocean, and it was no secret that Paul's wolf absolutely hated being on open water. The three wolves wouldn't be long a long time, but there still was the Juneau Pack up north, and the run in with Calgary had been recent enough that no one wanted to butt heads with another Pack anytime soon.

But that wasn't it. Or maybe it was, the she-wolf was very fond of her Third and vice versa, and perhaps Leah just sucked at understanding her instincts. After all, she had never worked on instinct a single moment of her life up until she had phased. It was Seth who had been impulsive, flying by the seat of his pants and somehow always managing to land feet first no matter how he leapt into life. But Leah…Leah was logical. Careful. Controlled. She liked when things made sense, grew annoyed when they didn't, and there was nothing like ambiguity to leave her raging pissed.

Phasing had…affected that. She was a walking bundle of emotions when she used to have complete control over all of her feeling. She was a fluff ball stuffed to the brim with feminine and lupine instincts, neither of which she had ever put any stock into or held any respect for. And yet here she was, her Alpha's only she wolf, the second eldest wolf in the Pack, and her Alpha's biggest confidant. Seth was Jake's best friend, but Seth had always looked at Jake as a hero, and hero worship was a dangerous thing. Seth had grown up, grown wise, learned just as Jake had that the Alpha wasn't infallible, and clarity always came with disillusionment.

Even Leah wasn't immune to their Alpha, and the fact that he was _Alpha_. But she was also older, had been wiser before she had grown colossally stupid, had the increased wisdom of those that realize they've been colossally stupid and fight their way out of that, and now she was…better. A better version of the person she had once been. And whether Leah would have chosen this path for herself didn't matter anymore. She knew what she was and what she wasn't, and she knew her place, even if by her very nature pressured her to push her boundaries, to see what she could get away with, to tease and taunt and play just a little harder.

Leah was a she-wolf, through and through. She just didn't always understand it.

She was prowling the reservation, but she was doing so alone and on two feet instead of four. It made it easier to hide what was going to be happening soon, something that she really wasn't ready to let her Pack and her Alpha know about yet. She had a couple hours. A couple hours and then she'd have to get out of here for a while, and if they didn't understand, then all they had to do was remember the last two times. Damn, that had been embarrassing back then.

Her skin felt tight, her muscles crawling beneath, but instead of wanting to burst, she was heating up inside. A low flame that always burned was flaring, would soon be a raging inferno she couldn't control, and soon she would be forced to accept that for what it was too. Jake would be pissed when she bailed, but two three days at most, and she could come back. She wasn't going through that again, with their embarrassment and lust warring in their thoughts and eyes. No, she'd go it alone this time, stick to Jake's territory, but keep clear. But she still had a few hours. Maybe a little more, and until then Leah slipped through their lands, her bare feet silent as they dug into the earth.

After all, something was wrong, and Leah knew that she had to find out what it was before it was too late. Call it instinct.

* * *

Jack had just wanted an apple. Was that so much to ask?

But somewhere along the lines, an apple had become an apple tree long since dead, and a girl smiling at him even as he pulled her into his arms, and a series of mistakes that he could never take back. And no matter how many times he said he was sorry, he could never ever take it back. The ancestors weren't the deities of today, benevolent and understanding, forgiving and merciful. No, the ancestors were the spirits of this land, and as that land became warped and poisoned by careless feet treading concrete paths, those spirits became equally poisoned. And angry, always angry. They were angry at many things, but him most of all.

_He had betrayed them_. He was sorry…he hadn't meant to.

Jack had just wanted an apple, but he had gotten lost, lost in his head, lost in their anger, lost in a past he couldn't change, no matter how long he lay here trembling, whispering he was sorry. So very sorry. Jack wasn't sure how long he had been apologizing, but as it always was, his whispered words were not enough. They were never enough. Beyond their normal rebuking, the ancestors felt that Jack was giving them the run around. As the ancient wolf lay beneath the boughs of her apple tree, his shivering human form feeling like a second skin much too tight for his comfort, he tried to explain. No, he wasn't trying to avoid them. Yes, he knew that being in his spirit guardian's form made it easier for them to contact him. No, he couldn't return to that form, not yet anyways. His Alpha wanted him to stay like this, to keep them out of his head more.

_His Alpha was dead, and he had killed him._

No, that wasn't his doing, they both had... _His Alpha was dead, and it was his doing, just like the Beta._

He had killed his Beta, yes. He was sorry... _He had murdered his kind, broken the faith, betrayed them all. _He was sorry. _Betrayer…_

He was so so very sorry, he hadn't known what would happen. _Murderer_…He had only done as he had been told, as he had been asked, he had only tried…_Traitor_…

He was sorry. So very sorry. Sorry, he was sorry, but he didn't know how to take it back. He'd take it back if they let him, he'd take it back, he'd do better, he promised he'd do better…_No_…

His Alpha thought that the ancestors should have had better things to do than to mercilessly beat at his wolf's spirit. But Jack knew that his Alpha couldn't think anything, his Alpha was dead. His Alpha found it amusing that after all these years, he was being told if he was able to think or not. Perhaps he should be told if he was hungry or not as well?

His Alpha was _dead_, his Alpha _couldn't_ be hungry. That may be so, but his Alpha found death to be boring, and preferred to be dead amongst the living, who were hungry like he was. Would the Alpha's wolf like to hunt with him?

His Alpha couldn't hunt, the Alpha was dead, and neither could Jack, because he was to stay like this. His living Alpha had said so. The Alpha was amused, thinking that two Alphas in one wolf was one Alpha too many, perhaps he should move on to different hunting grounds?

_No_.

Then the Alpha would stay, but in staying was hungry.

The ancestors were hungry, their spirits calling out for retribution. Jack was hungry too but he couldn't leave, he was under their apple tree, and he was supposed to wait here, wait for her. But she wasn't coming, because she was dead, and it was his fault. The Beta was dead and it was his fault. The Alpha was dead and it was both of their faults. The spirits were angry and it was all their faults. He should have known, he should have known, he should have known, he should have…

"Jack? _Jack_."

The ancient wolf trembled, his eyes were still closed, his arms wrapped around his bowed head, rocking softly back and forth as he apologized to her. He had lain beneath the apple tree, but she wasn't hungry, not anymore…

"Jack, _**open your eyes and look at me**_."

The weight, not Alpha, not Beta, but Qa'al, Third. Jack did as he was told, and found himself nose to nose with Paul. Paul's whose hand was resting on the back of his neck dominantly, Paul whose eyes were narrowed as if angry. He didn't have to speak, his body language said that the Third wanted Jack to breathe, he was turning blue. And because he wanted to do better, please please let him do better this time, Jack let out an explosive breath. He needed to breathe, and the dead didn't, and the dead were hungry, but for different things. They were going to eat him, eat him all up…

"No one's going to eat you, Jack," Paul stated firmly, but there was a low protective rumble to his voice that belied his concern. "They'd have to come through me, and my ass is itching for a fight. If anyone's getting eaten it's whoever's in your head."

It was good to have Qa'al. Third. Paul. It was…he was good. He wouldn't eat…

"Please don't eat my Alpha," Jack whispered, swaying a little, and Paul blinked in surprise. Then he cursed and wrapped an arm around Jack's waist, hauling him to his feet. Jack staggered, weakened, and tried to stabilize himself. He had been out here too long, too long lost in his head. He had wanted an apple. That was all he had wanted.

"Shit, Jack, how long has it been since you've eaten?" Paul growled, sounding irritated. Jack tried to formulate an apology, but it came out a soft whine, and Paul just shook his head as he dragged Jack back towards the trailer. "Where's that fucking leech that's supposed to be here too?"

"Redhead," Jack mumbled, his throat dry and cracked.

The Third shook his head, "Figures," he muttered, helping Jack to the door. The scent of vampire was too strong inside, so Paul helped Jack sink down into his lawn chair, grimaced distastefully, and then went inside the trailer himself. He came out almost instantly with a stale loaf of bread and half a jug of orange drink. Jack liked orange drink. Water and tea was good, but orange drink was orange. He liked grape drink too.

Paul was a clever wolf, insightful and wise, and knew better than to sit in the vampire's own lawn chair. Instead he crouched at Jack's side, watching the ancient wolf slowly wad several pieces of bread together into a ball, squeeze them twice, and then swallow the lump of bread whole. Four swallows and the loaf was gone. Jack washed it down with the orange drink, grateful for the momentary strength the sugars would give him. That was all the food they had in the house, Jack normally hunted instead of purchased his food, and unless Rico's friends brought over something, the refrigerator was usually empty. That's why the redhead and Rico were gone, there was nothing left to eat here, so they were at her place. Rico had said Jack could come too, but Jack had wanted an apple.

Was that so very bad?

His dead Alpha had driven out the worst of the voices, protecting what was left of his sanity the way his old friend was oft to do. Jack's other Alpha was pressing against his thoughts, worried it seemed, worried enough to have sent the Third to go check on him. Jack tried to center himself, tried to focus on the warmth of the sun on his face, and the clouds that threatened to cover that sun in their possessive shadows. The birds were chirping on their branches, singing their songs in hope that the clouds would not bully the sun, not today, not while they rested in its warmth. But he was twisted up inside, torn apart and bound back together again, lost and uncertain.

His Alpha, the real one, the one that loved him and chose him despite his failings, leaned against him. His Beta, the living one, the one whose throat he hadn't ripped from a warm beloved neck, leaned on him. And the Third, Paul, one who looked at him as Pack and as brother and as a friend, leaned on him heaviest of all. Braced between the trifecta of their support, Jack gathered himself more quickly than he had in years. He glanced at his Third, not seeing the desperate appeal in his own eyes, and Paul nodded. Risking the other lawn chair so that he could sit next to Jack, Paul's hand found the back of Jack's neck once more, and as if the ancient wolf was a freshly phased pup, Paul tugged Jack in close.

The Third smelled of Pack, and of his tiny blonde mate, and of deeper Pack bonding than the others did. And he smelled of strength, and it was that which gave Jack the courage to draw upon that strength. The Alpha, Jake, was used to Jack doing this. After all, Jake steadied Jack multiple times a day, helping him keep his demons quieter, the voices at bay. The young Alpha was a buffer, but the young Alpha had more than one wolf to care for, and for some reason besides Jack himself, the Alpha's strength had been fluctuating lately. Jack was still truly shocked that his current Beta would want anything to do with him at all, and it had never occurred to Jack to rely on his Third. But these young wolves were growing stronger every day, and Jack…needed help. He understood this even if he didn't believe he deserved that help. So as the Third tugged Jack's nose to his shoulder, Jack drew on his Packmate's strength.

Jake had once mentioned that Paul had no clue how strong he really was. So it was with shock that his pulling at Paul, depending on Paul to help steady him, barely made the Third blink. Like a drowning man given a life line, Jack clutched at that stability, using his Third to drag himself out of the mess that he had been sucked so deeply into. How many times already had Jake pulled him out? How many times had this young Pack cleared the fog that lay like a constant barrier between him and the world? How many times had he burdened them so heavily, only to have them offer even more comfort in return?

Paul's wolf liked him. He had fought for their mate, had kept her from harm. He was a burden, true, but not one that they couldn't manage.

It wasn't unexpected, but it was a great honor to have another's wolf address oneself. And it was that honor that brought Jack fully back, brought him to himself and off his proverbial knees, at least for a while. The voices of the ancestors faded, faded into almost nothingness, and that almost silence was glorious. And just because he believed his Third, believed in the strength of his Third, Jack pulled just a little more, just to be sure that when his Third walked away, on his own two feet Jack would remain.

To be completely honest, he may have just done it because it felt so damn good to feel closer to normal again. He wanted to be normal, he just got…lost and overwhelmed sometimes. Sucking in a deep steadying breath, he released his hold on his Third and sat back. How long had he been gripping the other man's arm hard enough to bruise wolf-flesh? Jack wished Paul would have said something, because Jack's bones and sinew had been given a lot of years to grow even harder. His Pack's bodies were like steel, but compared to his own, they were as malleable as thin sheets of gold. Jack could have accidentally broken Paul's arm.

Apologetically, Jack ducked his head.

The Third blinked, pulled back a little, then shook his head to bring him out of the haziness that accompanied what he had just done. "You cool, Jack?" Paul asked, his voice raspy from the extended use of the Pack magic. Funny, how channeling the emotions of the heart, and the concerns of the belly made one unable to talk as they should. How often had his first Alpha, his friend so long gone, chuckled and offered Jack a skin to drink from when he had been the same? The shaman of the Tlokwali, the true Qa'al, always did push themselves much too far. As it had been had been since the Time of Beginnings. As it would always be.

"I am, Third. Thank you," the ancient wolf murmured, glancing at Paul to see if the Third was in fact alright. But he was. Their Alpha knew his wolves, and Paul was…impressive. They all were impressive, such potential hadn't been seen for centuries, and yet ten of them ran La Push, unaware they were made of such powerful stuff. His mind clear and having nothing else to dwell on, Jack smiled slightly and allowed himself to dwell on his Pack and on how proud he was of them, and how grateful he was to be a part of them.

Somewhere to the north, the Alpha finally relaxed, content in knowing his wolf was okay again. Jack was okay. And that…that was a fine way to be.

"Thank you, Paul," Jack repeated, because it needed repeating. The Third nodded, leaned forward in Rico's chair and was quiet. Jack deliberately kept his eyes and his ears politely averted, focusing in on that squirrel scurrying under that fern's wide leaves instead of allowing himself to read Paul's body language and know his Packmate's thoughts. The Third thought for a while, giving Jack enough time to glean that it was a female squirrel, and young, and more mellow than its kind tended to be. Perhaps he could catch it and give it to the Third's mate as a mate for her own squirrel? After all, that one, the male squirrel, seemed in much need of the calming influence of mate.

"This isn't good for you, Jack, being out here all alone," Paul finally grunted after a while of silence. "Jake was about ready to ditch class to come find you, and Seth and I both could feel you slipping out here. You need to be with Pack, man, you need us closer when this happens."

"I am sorry," was the best that Jack could say, and he bowed his head, tipping it to the side slightly so that he was offering his Third his throat in apology. Paul sighed and rubbed his face tiredly.

"Do you know how tempted I am to just grab you by the neck and drag you back home with me?" Paul muttered. "You saved Cassie's life, Collin's too, and I don't treat that shit lightly. It pisses me the fuck off that you think you have to stay out here like this. You _don't_, man, we all want you back in the rez with us. You don't have to be alone and separated like this."

"I can't go back yet," Jack said softly, crumbling the empty bread bag in his hands as he stared at his feet. "Not even if I want to, and you want me to as well."

Paul was smart and he caught that most important word, his eyes narrowing again. "Why not _yet_, Jack?"

Jack shivered, because that was a bad day, the worst day, he was so very sorry about so many things but never so much as that day. But his Third wanted an answer, so Jack gave the most lucid one he could, knowing even as he spoke that he sounded crazy. "The rock isn't smooth enough, Third. I can't go back."

And there it was. His shame laid open for the other wolf to see. But he couldn't explain it, and Jake was keeping it from everyone else to protect him, so it really wasn't Paul's fault that he looked at Jack with such frustration. Finally Paul closed his eyes, muttered another quiet curse, and then rested his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Come on, man," Paul muttered, pulling the older wolf to his feet. "Let's go get you something to eat."

Casa Mia was a little Italian restaurant in Hoquiam, and on weekdays, they served all you could eat spaghetti. Between Paul and Jack, a young wolf whose appetite had yet to fully stabilize, and an old wolf who hadn't fed himself in a two days, they could eat a lot of spaghetti. In their defense, they did warn the restaurant of their hunger ahead of time and each paid for two all they could eat spaghetti meals to try and compensate, but by the time the two had finally slowed down, the restaurant looked as if they were ready to kick both men out. Paul seemed to find this amusing.

"You know," he said as he slurped down another forkful of pasta, "They should be used to you by now."

Jack had grown distracted by playing with the ice cube bobbing in his glass, a modern amenity that never ceased to impress him, but then he smiled slightly at the Third. "I wish to remain here for as long as possible," Jack said quietly. "It is better if I stay out of the city as much as I can."

"So you flip burgers at the most popular bar in town?" Paul asked, raising an eyebrow, and Jack's lips curved even more.

"That was done as a favor for a friend."

"Rico?" Paul asked, annoyance tingeing his voice, and Jack nodded, although he had caught the slightly disparaging tone. Unhappily, Jack returned to his spaghetti, and the Third seemed to have realized that his disapproval had affected Jack. Paul sighed and leaned back in his chair, scratching his stomach. Ten plates of spaghetti was good enough for even him to be full. "Sorry, that was kind of rude huh?" Paul muttered. "And who am I to say shit? Cass has got my ass hanging out and watching television with a fucking squirrel."

Jack was quiet, once more playing with his ice cubes, and then Paul grunted and leaned forward. "Hey listen, man. I came out here because I wanted to, and because Jake and Seth and I thought someone needed to, but I'm not going to bullshit with you. I've got some ulterior motives here."

The ancient wolf nodded, and then faster than anyone but Paul could see, flicked the ice cube in his mouth and began playing with the next one. "The Beta tried to seduce me as well," Jack stated quietly as he crunched, but his eyes sparkled with mischief as he very seriously addressed his Third, who had gone a little pale and then a lot red in only a few seconds. "I am difficult to seduce, however I appreciate the efforts given."

Suddenly Paul laughed, a loud barking noise "Do you ever _not_ fuck with people, Jack?" the Third asked, shaking his head, and Jack smiled slightly. The Third laughed again, and then shifted forward, food forgotten. "Anyways, I do have ulterior motives, here, and I kind of have to word this carefully."

The ancient wolf raised an eyebrow, and Paul leaned in on his elbows. "See here's the thing, man. Jake's got us under pretty tight orders about what we can and can't talk to you about, at least not without you bringing it up first. And I get that, trust me, I agree. You've been alone a really long time, and…I just understand about someone needing time with stuff, and privacy too."

Jack grew still, and then frowned. "I wasn't aware of that," he said softly, and then the shame started to press down on him, the realization that his Alpha had to protect him so much—

"**Jack**. Come back to me, man," Paul ordered, and there was enough weight behind it that Jack obeyed, refocusing. "I'm sorry Jack, but this is important." Paul was looking at him apologetically, but there was something else in his eyes, and Jack suddenly understood. This was about the other wolf's mate, and that meant all other things took second place.

"Listen, man, it's about Cass. My mate, she isn't doing too good. She's trying. She's trying really hard to work her way through this, but it doesn't help that she's locked in on the rez the way she is. And I've been trying as much as I can to help her, the whole Pack has, it's just…" Paul drifted off, his hands curling briefly into fists before relaxing back on the table. "I can feel her slipping from me, Jack. I can't explain it, I'm just tied so tight to her these days, and I can feel how lost she is. But she puts on such a brave face, and she tries to be happy, and I don't think she knows that I can feel it this…hard."

Paul stopped speaking for a moment, as if temporarily overcome with someone else's emotions, and then he exhaled heavily. Jack wondered if the Third realized that he was Mated. After all, Paul's heart was in his eyes, his strength was fluxing upwards, and Jack tried very hard not to be frightened. His wol—no, _Jack_ had been damaged too deeply, and wasn't what he had once been. Instinct told him to cower, but Pack instinct told him that his Third needed more than submission from him, leaving Jack twisted, conflicted, confused, fuzzy. It was harder, so much harder being alone. But it was easier too. Unconsciously Jack reached out, pressed into his Alpha for support, and steadied himself.

Jack was Pack now, and this was his Third. He would do his best.

"Anyways, I got a job with Jared and Quil, up on the fishing boats up north, but it's going to mean I'll be gone for a few weeks," Paul continued, unaware of Jack, and Jake, and many other things. "We'll come home for a while, but then I'll be going back again. I've worked it out with Embry that Collin's off late patrols until I get back, and he's going to stay with Cass at night so she's not alone. And Jared worked out the same with Brady and Kim, which is good, gives the pups something to focus on. But I'm worried about leaving her, even with Collin there, especially with how she is right now. And I try to understand, but I've never…"

The ancient wolf remained quiet, and Paul seemed to be struggling around what he could or was willing to say next. His Third was worried, so worried, and Jack made a soft noise in his throat, unconsciously trying to soothe his Packmate. "You are my Pack, Paul," Jack murmured, "And your mate is too. What is it that you would ask of me?"

"Jack, she killed someone and it's breaking her heart," Paul finally said, his voice growing soft enough that no one but Jack could possibly hear. "And the only person I have ever known to regret something as much as she does now, is you. And I know this is offensive of me to say, but you're not exactly the person I would turn to for this kind of thing. I want Cass to get better and you're just not…just not. And I know it's not the same. That fucker deserved every bit of what happened to him, and with you…that was different. But I think that if she had someone to talk to that understood better than we do, that it might help her."

The young wolf sighed heavily, rubbing his face wearily. "You know, I regret killing those wolves in Mexico, but to protect you and Jake, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. And I know Cass would do anything to protect her sister, but the whole Afon thing had such a domino effect, and I think it's that which is getting to her the most. But she's trying so hard to be okay, and she just doesn't want to talk about it with me, not anymore at least. I'm running out of time before I leave."

Jack nodded, and then snagged another ice cube out of his drink, relishing the coldness against his thumbs before lifting his eyes to his Third. "You wish me to speak with your mate."

"If you can," Paul said quietly. "I wouldn't ask, but I'm just really worried about her."

The ancient wolf thought about it for a while, and tried to decide if a breach of etiquette was acceptable in this case. Finally he picked up his check, left pointedly after his first eight bowls of spaghetti, and paid for his meal, Paul doing the same and following him outside. They walked until they were once more concealed by the surrounding countryside, and it was only then that Jack spoke. His words were in Quileute, respectful and low so not to insult his Third if at all possible.

"My father was Tlokwali, Qa'al," Jack murmured softly as they slipped on silent feet through the deep greens of the forest. "He was taken with the sickness, as our fourth has been, a few years before I became Tlokwali as well. But before that he used to take me with him as he and his Beta hunted and fished, teaching me the ways of our people as they had been taught before me. At night, I would sleep closest to the fire where it was warmer, my father resting in his spirit form at my back. The Beta's mate was the child aged sister of my father, and the Beta had known her as such from the time that she was first born into our tribe. She was no older than I was, and she was favored among our people for having been born the mate of one as old and as wise as our Beta. She would often accompany us on these journeys, and sometimes, as the two adult wolves surrounded us with their warmth, I would look across the firelight and see Tlokwali in her own eyes, although the change had never come upon her, and never would."

Paul was quiet as he absorbed that, and when his body language spoke of questions, Jack continued.

"My father was a good wolf," the ancient wolf spoke, his voice naturally taking on that cadence so familiar to him when telling of the past. "He had been as blood brother to the Beta for many seasons, more than were counted back then. When the sickness came upon him, he went willingly, knowing his place among our people was no more and knowing the danger he possessed to them. However, in being culled, the Beta grew heartsick over my father's loss and spent many night and days running and fasting and grieving. The spirits grieved with him, and the people watched at his mate faded away."

The Third's eyes narrowed at that, but he said nothing, so Jack continued on. "You see, the spirit of the Beta's wolf had chosen to split itself, residing in them both, and as one suffered, so did the other. It was rare, their mating, and there was speculation amongst the people that he had taken her to his bed even though that wasn't to happen until she reached an appropriate age. But I knew that he hadn't, she was too young and he loved her far too much to have ever hurt her in such fashion, and that was simply not the case. They were merely mated deeply, their souls bound with a third, and she was too young to be able to fathom the depths of his mourning. And as she slipped away, so did he. My father was culled in the heart of wintertime, and chose to starve himself rather than live alone. By springtime, all three were gone."

The Third gave Jack a serious look. "You're saying that if the wolf dies, the imprint will as well?" he asked worriedly, but Jack shook his head.

"It is different between each wolf and each mate," Jack said quietly. "But some mating goes deeper than others, every breath inhaled shared between two, every exhale as one. It is…customary to not speak of how deeply each brother chooses to bind himself to his mate, or how deeply she chooses to return that binding. Even discussions such as these were to be avoided."

Avoided, because that was how it was to be done. Only that wasn't the way he did things, he always did them wrong.

"If I were to have mated more deeply with Cass, what does that mean for her? For both of us?" Paul asked, hungry for knowledge, and Jack tried to think of the best answer, but the best answers were lost sometimes, because it had been a long time since he was allowed to know what was best, only what was worst. He was very good at worst. Something pressed at the back of his head, pushed at his Pack's protection, pushed at his control. They were nearing the trailer, Jack's home, or at least the lawn chair that he lived in. Funny, they had been a distance away when the Third had asked his last question.

"If your mate is hurting, so will you," Jack finally managed to say, although the words were thick on his tongue. Better to be quiet, to be still, to be unnoticed. Better without Pack. But then again…so much better with. "If it goes deeper, the wolf hurts as well, and that hurts the entire Pack. The concerns of one are the concerns of all. We are Tlokwali. It has always been this way. I will speak to her, as you have requested, Third, although I am not sure it will be of any use. When it comes to a sickness of the heart, those of Tlokwali are often to prone to culling themselves."

Jack paused by her apple tree and touched the trunk, wondering if a branchless trunk would grow straight and alone into the skies forever, and if in being weighted down by many, one was destined to fall. He had always liked apples, and he had wanted one, but the last time he had reached, the world had gone bleak, and his heart bleaker still. He still wanted an apple, but he didn't want to go back there, not now, not yet. If Jack had understood the look in his eyes when he had stared for so long at that last piece of fruit on the tree, he would have understood why his Third reached up and plucked it for him, Paul murmuring gratitude before squeezing his shoulder and slipping away back towards La Push.

All Jack knew was that he had wanted an apple, and he had been afraid, and there was shame in fearing a single piece of fruit. The Third wasn't afraid, and one day Jack wanted to not be afraid either. He wanted…closing his eyes, Jack allowed a small smile to curve his lips. He wanted this. A Pack. A place to belong again. That was what he wanted and he wouldn't ruin it this time. Jack knew exactly how precious the gift of Pack was.

Jack kept the smile on his face, offered up a small prayer to the still softly murmuring ancestors as he padded over to the trailer, where inside a single drawer above the tiny closet the wolf and vampire shared, he kept his entire world. A lump wrapped in the softest of deerskin. A small and delicately shaped white quill. Half a broken knife. And now, a slightly withered apple. He'd eat the apple later, when his afternoon patrol was over, but he'd make sure to dry a small piece of it to keep.

After all, if the Qa'al gave one such as him something, that was precious indeed.

* * *

It had been a good day, and Renesmee had gone to sleep smiling and content, dreaming of Christmas. But when she awoke in the middle of the night, her smile was gone. When she awoke in the middle of the night, she awoke _thirsty_.

It wasn't a mild scratching of her throat that the little girl was used to, like one has spent too much time in the sun and needed a drink of water. It was a much deeper, much more aggressive thirst, one that ripped from just beneath the back of her tongue, all the way down to her belly. Renesmee must have grown overnight, that happened sometimes, and it tended to cause a burst of hunger in both her human and vampire sides. But this…this was beyond hunger, beyond thirst, and Renesmee rolled over in her bed, her hands gripping her throat and squeezing as hard as she could to keep from crying out.

She was lucky, last time this had happened they had been up at the main house. Her Uncle Jasper had felt the wave of her emotions hit at the same time her father had heard her agonized thoughts, and to say that her family had overreacted was an understatement. It had embarrassed her deeply then, but she wasn't surprised by her intense need for human blood now.

After all, it wasn't like it was unexpected. Renesmee _was_ a newborn.

It was their secret, the Cullen family, one of many the coven kept locked away from their allies. Not even the Denali coven or Jacob knew the actuality of what Renesmee was, and she had been taught since she was still an infant to keep that secret. Most newborn vampires were extremely strong, the blood remaining in their human limbs feeding them even as they fed on their own prey. Eventually that blood would drain away, be used until every drop of unchanged human blood was gone, and then they would be just like every other vampire. But Renesmee was half human, and her human half was always creating and pumping fresh blood into her system. She wasn't just a newborn for now, she was destined to live her _entire life_ as a newborn, with the benefits and disadvantages that came along with it. And the dangerousness of that was why it was kept a secret.

The La Push Pack was their ally, but no matter what the Cullens would prefer to believe, what Bella insisted, no one knew for certain what the Pack would do if they knew that a possible immortal newborn was living so close to their ancestral lands. From the very first time Jacob Black had laid eyes on her, the Alpha had been drawn to Renesmee, had loved her and cared far more about her than anyone had expected. But the Alpha wasn't just a good hearted young man playing uncle to his best friend's daughter. No, Jacob Black was a very dangerous creature, with a lot of other very dangerous creatures under his command, and it was their sole purpose in life to eliminate these kinds of threats from their home. Threats like what Renesmee could be, and possibly would be if she had been raised differently.

Renesmee had often thought about right and wrong, and she had often wondered who she would be if she had been raised by another, or by none at all. Would the inherent humanity of her personage mean that she would still identify that it was wrong to kill and drink from a human? Or would she be like most of the other newborns out there, viewing humans as merely a living breathing water bottle, there to be grabbed and sipped from at their leisure. Were her moral instilled, or were they built in? Was she a monster that was taught to know better? Or was she a person who knew better, who had the unfortunateness of needing to rein in the monster inside?

Her mind spun, considered, questioned, valued, discarded, and her little hands squeezed even harder, wishing that she could go back to how she had been just a few minutes ago. A few minutes ago she had been dreaming of a Christmas tree, and of a snowball fight with her Uncle Emmett like last year, and of dipping her gingerbread men into icing instead of blood.

Blood.

_Blood_.

Renesmee's thoughts were safe for the moment, her father and mother had slipped off to the cottage to be alone for a while, and her Uncle Jasper had taken Alice to Seattle today, and Esme and Carlisle were gone for the night. It was dark and overcast in the Emerald City today, the best time for vampires to shop, and her uncle always did enjoy indulging her aunt whenever possible. Uncle Jasper had been a good man before he died, and in dying had become a very bad man, and now he did absolutely everything he could to rectify that. Renesmee wasn't exactly sure what her required for redemption, but she was pretty sure that her uncle buying her aunt a new necklace didn't count.

Her father had taught her about God, and had read her the Bible, and had told her the importance of life and being kind and good to each other. She knew the Ten Commandments, and she knew that as she lay curled around herself and her need to kill, pretending to be something she was not, she was as good as lying. Renesmee knew that in being herself and accepting her family's wishes in secrecy, she was breaking at least two of those commandments. The Bible had said to ask, and she shall receive. Well, if Renesmee were to have asked, then she would have asked to not have to kill anything anymore, but the fact that she was already breaking two of the rules, meant that she shouldn't be asking for anything, didn't it?

She didn't know.

She didn't know much, but she did know that her body hurt from growing, and that she needed to eat for that to stop. Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett were watching her today, and Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett were currently distracted. Renesmee had only gone to bed a couple hours earlier and she usually slept at least nine or ten before becoming anywhere close to waking. Her grandfather said it was because she was in an awkward growing phase, and her human parts needed time to catch up to her vampire parts. Renesmee often wondered if they separated her out by those parts and put her into two piles if she would be two people or only bits of useless scraps.

Could she be human without being vampire? Could she be vampire without being human? Was she the sum of her parts, or the product of them spliced together? Could she subtract one, or divide by the other? A person wasn't arithmetic, but at least arithmetic made sense. In mathematics, there was always no answer, one answer, or infinitely many answers. Renesmee knew if there was just someone to ask, someone to tell her, than she could be okay with any of those results. If there was no answer, she was content with discontinuing her search. If there was one answer, she would like to know it. And if there were infinitely many answers, then she could accept that she would never truly know who she was or what made up herself. It was the ambiguity that left her feeling lost, confused, uncertain as to even why she was the way she was.

_Blood_.

The heat was building, scorching down her esophagus, twisting and cramping human organs and making her heart race. The thirst didn't care who she was, or what she was, and it most definitely didn't care _why_ she was. The thirst was much more concerned with itself and its own needs. Renesmee had enough of her parents in her to not easily allow herself enslaved by this, but she had enough of the unknown in her to be unsure if she would always be able to hold out. To be honest, that added uncertainty frightened her, the weakness of her human side frightened her almost as much as the leaching of her vampire side off of her human side.

Jacob Black liked to call her family leeches, but the truth was, she was the worst leech of them all. The others might feed upon animals, but Renesmee fed upon her own self. Sometimes she dreamed of tinsel and snowballs and gingerbread, but sometimes she dreamed that she was eating herself up until nothing was left. Renesmee tried very hard not to think of those dreams when her father was around.

The little girl kept her hands on her throat and sat up carefully in her bed, trying to be as quiet as possible. Her feet made no noise as she slipped out from under the covers and across the thick carpeting. Her window was open, the way it always was at night. Larger animals steered clear of the Cullen home, but birds and insects seemed to know they were safe, and Renesmee had spent many nights sleeping to their noises. The crickets especially helped her slide into slumber, their chirping noises playing in the background like tiny little fiddles. Renesmee liked music, she always had.

_Blood_.

It was pushing at her, and she knew she needed to feed. She also knew that she should say something to her Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett, they would be angry if they found out she had gone hunting alone, but she wasn't planning on actually hunting. Most of the time, Renesmee got her blood from her family's spare supplies, mostly cow or pig's blood from a local butcher. She loved to run, she actually enjoyed the hunt very much, but it was the killing and having someone watch her feed that left her feeling uncomfortable. So her mother had asked her father to build a small rabbit pen out in the backyard so that if Renesmee needed fresh blood and felt uncomfortable hunting that day with her family, she could go out back and "hunt" a rabbit.

Sometimes that was worse. The rabbits were so docile that it felt like eating a teddy bear, only a teddy bear that was looking up at you with sorrowful eyes. So Renesmee only came out here in emergencies. Like now. Now was an emergency. So she carefully climbed out of her open window, being extra cautious to not make any noise and to not catch her nightgown on the windowsill. She let go of her throat long enough to grip the windowsill and let herself fall lightly down the single story drop onto the ground, bending her knees to take the brunt of the impact.

She heard her Aunt Rose go still as she headed around the back corner of the house, her body being drawn towards the animals already.

"Emmett…" Rosalie said, sitting up in bed, but her uncle pressed an audible kiss to her aunt's skin.

"It's just Ness getting a snack," Emmett murmured.

"We should go help her."

"She can snag the Easter bunny all by herself, Rose," Emmett chuckled even softer, not intending to be heard by Renesmee as the two went back to a quieter version of their earlier exploits. But the little girl heard what he had said. She had heard even as she had gathered up one of the several rabbits in the pen, and it looked at her with big worried eyes. The pain in her throat was worsening, spreading through her limbs and swirling around in her stomach, but the little girl could only stare at the rabbit, the bunny, the Easter bunny, and then she wrapped her arms around it and hugged it tightly.

Only monsters killed the Easter bunny.

The bunny's fur was soft against her skin, and Renesmee cuddled it as long as she could, which was to say as long as she could stand having something living that close to her, and after brushing her little nose against its tiny twitching one, Renesmee walked to the wood lines and set it down. There was only one Easter bunny after all, so if she let it go, then maybe she could have one of the other ones and not feel bad about it. Which was silly, because the Easter bunny was simply a product of the pagan belief that rabbits and eggs both represented fertility, combined with the Catholic fasting during Lent, meaning that there was always a surplus of eggs around Easter. But she liked the pictures of she had in her books of the Easter Bunny and his basket hop hopping along, and in those storybooks there had never been a vampire in the background ready to eat it.

_Blood_.

She needed to feed and soon, although she wasn't sure what would happen if she didn't. After all, between her father and Uncle Jasper, someone always seemed to know when she was this thirsty and promptly either gave her something to drink or insisted she hunt with them. It was very hard to hide things in her life, and this was one of the hardest. Renesmee had just turned back to the bunny pen, her eyes squeezed shut. She'd use her nose and her ears to guide her, and she'd try to eat the next bunny fast enough that it wouldn't feel her killing it. As she took a step, Renesmee inhaled deeply to find which bunny…prey…which prey smelled the best.

Just one tiny little mistake.

The child had no way of knowing it, but her body wasn't the only thing that had grown that night. Her senses had improved as well, not excessively, but enough that when she tried to smell the rabbits in the pen, she ended up smelling _everything_. Everything worth smelling in a mile radius, that was, including the large buck running towards the west. She could smell its musky woodsy coat, and its warm breath, and the hot blood pumping through its veins. _Blood_. _Fresh blood_. _More blood_. Even as she tried to plug her nose with her little hands, it was too late. The thirst hit her, much harder than it ever had in her life and she was running, running through the forest, after her real prey.

Renesmee didn't hear her Aunt Rose's cry to her Uncle Emmett when she bolted, she didn't hear her Uncle yelling at her to come back, to not go _that_ way. She did smell them, though, other predators chasing her, larger predators that were stronger than her but not faster. She was as fast as they were, at least for a little while. Long enough to take down her prey and—

Another scent, warmer, deeper, _better_. So much better, and she was hunting that now, darting past the frightened buck as it lunged away, nearly breaking its leg as it tried to avoid death at her hands. But the little girl was hunting so much superior prey, and there were too many others following her now, because someone had yelled for her mother and father. _Thirst_. She was so thirsty, and this one would taste good. It would taste more delicious than _anything_.

It really wasn't her fault. She would never have done this if she had been thinking straight, but as a deep earth shaking howl rattled the world around her, Renesmee broke the treaty line and sprinted onto Quileute soil.

To their credit, Emmett and Rose never once hesitated before they dove in after her.

Almost instantly, a second and more powerful howl surrounded her. Renesmee realized that she couldn't take down this prey, it was too dangerous for her, and with a cry of frustration, she darted sideways, past a huge body that made to cut in her path. This was what had smelled so good to her, but she flung herself deeper into the trees, startling a raccoon from where it had been crouched beneath a bush. It made a small screech as it tried to dart up the closest tree, presumably for safety, but Renesmee fell onto it like a person starved, which on some level, she truly was. It wasn't enough, wasn't nearly enough, but the blood was fresh and warm and she rarely had that anymore. It was sufficient to break through the bloodlust, and with a terrible clarity, Renesmee realized what she had done.

The child let out a tiny horrified cry. _What had she just done_?

Renesmee must have made a sad little sight, in her white flannel nightgown with the Pooh Bear trim, her feet and hands and clothing smeared with dirt and blood as she crouched at the base of the evergreen, still cradling the raccoon. It was dead, dead the moment she had touched it, but there were other little heartbeats not too far away, up in the tree actually. When Renesmee realized that she had just killed a mommy raccoon, her eyes flooded with tears. She knew she had done something awful by coming here like this, breaking the treaty, and in her family coming after her, she had possibly destroyed the treaty everyone had tried so hard to maintain. But for some reason, knowing she had just sentenced those baby raccoons to die felt so much worse.

She was deeper into the reservation than the rest of them, the wolves had all come running when they had smelled the Cullens breaking the border, and Rosalie and Emmett were surrounded not too far away. Her daddy and mommy were cut off at the border, and she could hear the wolves growling warningly and her Aunt hissing. Her daddy was talking rapidly to someone, Seth, but Renesmee knew it wouldn't do any good. She had broken the rules in a very bad way, and that just wasn't allowed. There was a huge shirtless man moving towards her, hastily buttoning his jeans as he trotted up, his eyes full of confusion and concern. When she realized that _he_ was what had smelled so good, that _he_ was what she had been hunting, Renesmee began to cry in earnest, even as she plugged her nose with one little hand and grabbed at her still burning throat with the other.

She had tried to hunt Jacob, one of her only friends. She really was a monster.

The Alpha didn't seem to realize that. Instead Jacob crooned softly to her as he knelt down next to her. "Nessie, Ness honey, don't cry. Don't cry, baby. What are you _doing_ here, Nessie?"

He tried to gather her up in his arms, tried to bring her hand to his skin so he could understand, but she pulled away, knowing that her hunger, her secret, was something the Alpha couldn't know. She wanted to tell Jacob, but she couldn't, and she was so thirsty that she was afraid to let go of her nose and her throat. Her mother was snarling, her family could hear her crying and it was pushing the vampires towards fighting to get to her. So Renesmee used everything she had to pull herself together.

The Cullens had broken the treaty, but it wasn't her family's fault. She knew what she had to do.

"Jacob Black, La Push Alpha," Renesmee said as formally as she could, her voice trembling because she was as scared as she was thirsty, "I take full respons…responsibility for the b…breach of our treaty." It made it hard to speak because she kept choking on her words, and she added in a tearful little plea that her family couldn't hear. "Please, when…when you…when you k…kill me, could you make it not hurt?"

It took a lot to shock Jacob Black these days. A little girl thinking he could bring himself to kill her over politics must have been one of those things. But she didn't have time to think about it long, because he snatched her up into his arms, and his scent hit her again, overwhelmingly so. It frightened her badly, and Renesmee began sobbing this time. Jacob was speaking angrily in Quileute, but his heartbeat was strong against her forehead as he rocked her tightly to his chest. She was pretty sure he had been cursing, because as soon as his voice grew less angry, he switched into English. "Nessie, Nessie, you _know_ I couldn't do that. Never you, baby, never you. I love you way too much for that, honey, so please don't cry. Everything's okay, Nessie, everything's okay."

"I...I broke the treaty," Renesmee choked out, and Jacob growled, although not at her.

"Fuck the treaty. You're my girl, Nessie, and if I lose the treaty, I lose you too. Honey, what happened? Please, just tell me what happened, I promise I won't be mad at you and everything will be okay. My rez, my rules, Nessie, you know it's true. Everything's okay."

Her relief was so overwhelming that she began to sob harder. This time she couldn't stop him when Jacob brought her hand from her throat to his jaw, the place where she had always liked to talk to him the best. Renesmee knew her thoughts didn't make a lot of sense. The Easter bunny, and being hungry, and her shame. Hunger was the most of it, and she could feel Jacob stiffen beneath her when he realized that she had been hunting him. The Alpha let out a deep sigh, as if not actually believing he was about to do this, and then he bit his forearm hard enough to draw blood. The little girl's head snapped up, and to her credit she tried to wiggle herself away, but Jacob made a hushing noise in his throat, kissed the top of Renesmee's head, and then he pressed his arm to her mouth.

Renesmee had never fed from a human before, and certainly not one such as Jacob. His blood wasn't just hot in her mouth, it was scorching, overwhelming the burning in her throat almost instantly. She didn't realize that her emotions were flooding him, the Alpha lost beneath her gratitude and her need, and she didn't realize that in feeding from someone alive, she needed so much less, even though the desire to continue was still there. This was enough to get her home, and maybe if everyone wasn't too angry they would let her have some Lucky Charms with her blood. It wouldn't taste as good, but she liked the little happy leprechaun, he always made her giggle in the commercials, and she shouldn't like how _good_ this tasted anyways.

So telling herself that Lucky Charms was so much better, one couldn't play word search on the back of a Jacob box, Renesmee had barely taken three swallows before she forced herself off of Jacob's arm. She looked at him, still hungry and still crying silently, and not sure whether to be horrified at herself or just miserable that she was a monster.

"You're not a monster, Nessie," Jacob growled, instantly pissed, although not at her. Jacob Black never had been good at holding his temper when she got confused about herself like this, it was as if the Alpha in him took over and he lashed out at the only things he could protect her from, namely her vampire family. So even as he pressed his arm back to her mouth, he had already picked her up and was heading back towards the treaty line. The Alpha stalked past a furious Rosalie and a worried looking Emmett, the pair crouched down as they stood surrounded by the Pack, and over to where Edward and Bella were blocked at the line by a sandy colored wolf and two grey ones, one heavier than the other.

Even though Edward had heard everyone's thoughts, even he looked shocked as Jacob carried Renesmee to them, the little girl still feeding. Bella licked her lips, then looked ashamed and stepped back several paces, realizing that if Jacob was doing this, then everything was okay. But a hungry Bella, who was still close to being a newborn despite her ability to control herself, needed to not be that close to blood. The wolves looked surprised, and one of them, a dark red wolf that looked almost like a fox in his markings, whined unhappily. Jacob just jerked his head and the whine cut off instantly.

"Jacob," her father said softly. "I'm _so_ sorry."

"In a minute, leech," Jacob snarled, "I'm a little busy here."

Edward stiffened, but fell quiet, and everyone stayed frozen in place until Renesmee pulled away, this time having drank her fill. The thirst was gone, and her body didn't hurt, not at all anymore. Feeling almost like a stuffed burrito, wet and sloshy and very full, she laid her cheek against Jacob's shoulder, her eyes immediately fluttering closed. Jacob murmured something softly to her in Quileute, hoisted her up in his arms, and Renesmee wondered if she should be embarrassed that he was rocking her the way he had when she was still an infant, and that his heat was putting her to sleep almost as easily as it had so long ago.

Renesmee often thought about right and wrong, good and evil, humans and…well…her. She didn't know where she fit in, probably nowhere. But as Jacob stepped forward and passed her to her father's protective arms, Jacob's hand lingering over her brow and the taste of his blood still on her tongue, she decided that Jacob was good. He loved her, and even when she messed things up even more, he still loved her and that was good. So when she was passed off again, her mother's voice soft and sweet in her ears, Renesmee didn't have the heart to worry. Instead she just felt loved and left it at that. And this time when she laid down, Renesmee slept the rest of the night through.

The little girl dreamed about baby raccoons that still had their mommies and wolves running faster than the wind.

* * *

She walked into the bar like she owned it.

It was a busy night at Barney's Bar, and the crowds of Hoquiam's finest were already well into their evening. The music was loud, the whooping and hollering was even louder, a significant amount coming from the blonde creature next to him and the table full of Rico's most recent conquests. The scent of alcohol and hamburgers and sweat and desire was thick in the air, plugging Jack's nostrils, which was the only reason he didn't smell her coming from a mile away.

The she-wolf walked into the bar like she owned it, and Jack wondered if it even occurred to her that she didn't.

The first time Leah had come here alone, Jack had panicked. After all, the females were a jealously guarded commodity these days, and Jack was well aware of the La Push Pack's growing strength. Their Alpha had found him some weeks earlier, as he started off on a journey of exploration that Jack had known from the start was a bad idea, but would never presume to tell an Alpha, especially this one. He had expected to be either attacked or run off, and when the young Alpha had simply wanted to sit down and talk, it had turned the ancient wolf into a nervous mess, nearly incapable of coherent speech. Instead of being angered, the young Alpha had seemed to find it amusing, and Jack was pretty sure the other wolf had felt pity for him.

The shame of that pity had left him a silent shivering mess, and the Alpha had eventually been on his way. He should have warned Jack that he was sending his she-wolf to drag him back into the world of the Tlokwali, of Pack, whether Jack liked it or not. If Jake had, Jack most likely wouldn't have fled like a coward the first time he saw her. It wasn't that he was afraid of a she-wolf, but he was afraid of Jake. He was afraid of having to fight the first wolf to have treated him like he was…well…worth something in several hundred years. Alpha's didn't like their females wandering, and the blame would fall on Jack's head, he had known that.

Well, he had _thought_ he'd known that. Jacob Black was a different kind of Alpha, and when the she-wolf had caught up to him and mauled his ears mercilessly while explaining that, Jack had merely crouched and shivered. After all, he didn't want to fight anymore. He was good at it, so very good at it, but he didn't want to hurt another wolf, not in protection of himself, not anymore.

That was a while ago. Jack had hurt a lot of wolves since, but his loyalty to the Alpha, to _Jack's_ Alpha, took precedence over everything. He'd tear this whole world apart for Jake, for his Pack, for his second chance. And the she-wolf was Jack's Alpha's she-wolf, and that meant he'd tear the world apart for her too. He wondered if she knew what she was doing, walking in here like this, when she smelled like that, when every man and some of the women she passed looked at her hungrily and didn't even understand why. He didn't question Jake's reasoning for letting her out, but it was dangerous. Men had been hurt, killed even, for looking at a she-wolf in heat in front of her Pack. And by the smell of it, she had just come into heat within the last hour or two, and the scent of Pack and female and _sex_ was so strong that it ripped past the other scents plugging his nostrils. From across the room, Leah's eyes locked onto his and the she-wolf gave Jack a heated hungry gaze.

Some things even centuries alone couldn't make Jack forget.

The bar hadn't minded Rico flipping burgers for them these last few months, after all, he was such a staple at the place that he only drew in a bigger crowd with his meat serving antics. However, they were equally okay with having Jack back. As long as someone showed up on Jack's scheduled shifts, it was fine by them, after all he and Rico were paid under the table. Tonight someone else had burger duty, leaving Rico free to enjoy his surroundings, and Jack to sit there next to his friend and lean back in his chair, silently surveying this chunk of his Alpha's territory. Rico had smelled Leah walk in as well, and although the vampire didn't find the scent of another wolf nearly as appealing as Jack did, it was obvious that the tight torn jeans and the black tank top were enough to grab his interest.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," the vampire chuckled, starting to get up as Leah headed straight for them, the humans shifting out of her way instinctively. Jack and Rico had been friends for a long time…but Leah was in _heat_. And the vampire was _looking_ at her. Jack let out a low snarl, grabbed Rico's shoulder and jerked him back down in his seat, even as the wolf rose to his own feet. Rico looked momentarily startled, then inhaled deeply, wrinkled his nose, and then laughed.

"Point made, Jackie boy, you've got dibs," Rico chuckled, touching his finger to his hat respectfully as Leah swaggered up. The girls at the table were staring at her, no one liked when the blonde vampire's attention was taken away from them, and Jack shifted himself between Leah's challenging gaze and their jealous eyes. Leah took a step forward, licking her lips as she was about to say something, but Jack stepped forward as well, his hips bumping hers as he pushed her backwards a step. A she-wolf in heat could be dangerous to those she viewed as competition. And everyone really. The smell of lust in the room was rising and Leah should know better than to come to a place like this. Or maybe she didn't, the she-wolf was young after all.

"Hey Jack," Leah winked, but he only took another step forward, trying to gently encourage her to get away from a table full of beautiful woman and one constantly interested vampire. He didn't want to have to kill Rico tonight for touching what was Pack and Leah wasn't in the state of mind to know any better. The she-wolf snarled at him when he told her softly in Quileute that she shouldn't be there, and Jack ducked his head apologetically but stayed where he was, making sure to keep between them all as she shifted sideways. His hand on her hip restrained her, but only barely.

"So, Rico," Leah smirked devilishly over Jack's shoulder, the two were the same height so she could see the table watching her with interest. "Jack doesn't want me around tonight. How rude is that?"

Jack was holding his breath on purpose, but she leaned in closer, and that smell… It'd been a long time since he'd smelled a she-wolf in heat, and Jack had forgotten how intoxicating it could be. He didn't hear what Leah was saying, instead instinct took over and he moved into her, his nose going to her shoulder as he inhaled deeply. His hand was still on her hip, and then he raised his gaze, seeing a group of other males at the bar counter, several openly eyeing her.

It had been a long time since Jack had growled at a human and meant it. Leah laughed at his reaction, and then they locked eyes. She wasn't just in heat, she was close to being in rut, and she needed to get out of here. He'd take her out of here, and she knew it. He'd take her out of here and-.

"Can I steal your drinking buddy?" he heard Leah ask Rico, and it cut through the scent induced territorialism Jack was feeling. Immediately he backed off, but by then Leah had gripped his arm in hers. He wasn't used to contact, at least not with Pack, and a tremble rolled down Jack's spine.

Rico had been watching his reaction with interest, and then the vampire began chuckling. "Now, now, Leah, when could I ever turn you down? A pretty lady-"

"Later, leech," the she-wolf cut the vampire off, and then she was pulling Jack by the arm through the crowds towards the exit. He followed wordlessly, once more trying to hold his breath and staring over her shoulder at anyone who looked too hard too long at his Packmate. She had run here, he could smell the wind in her hair and the fresh dirt on her feet inside her sneakers, although he didn't understand why she would bother to have carried clothes as burdensome as shoes all this way. They made it outside with Jack killing anyone, and they ducked around the metal building's corner and into the darkness of trees behind the bar. The woods were thick out here in Hoquiam, they had given him a lot of places to hide over the centuries. Jack had learned a long time ago to duck and take cover.

Ducking a she-wolf had never been one of those things, but when Leah's mouth crashed challengingly into his, her arms wrapped around his neck, the first thing Jack thought was that he needed to run very fast and very far away. This was his Alpha's she-wolf, and he wasn't ranked anymore, and he needed to keep his hands to himself because that was law under Jake's Pack. That was his first thought. His second thought was that Jake had also told him that Leah had free rein of who she mated with when she was in heat, and if she initiated it, what happened was both wolves' decision.

She smelled so _good_.

It was more than just the overwhelming scent of her arousal that got to him. Even in the last few months, the amount of physical contact Jack had with his Pack was significantly less than they had with each other. He'd had enough lovers to lose count of over the centuries, but never any that matter, and never any that were Pack. Jack craved that contact more than anything in his small world, and even as the whispers of his brothers in his mind told him he didn't deserve this, the ancient wolf let out a snarl and jerked Leah closer, pressing her shoulders to the nearest redwood with enough force to make her grunt and then groan with pleasure. Her hands were already clawing at his clothes, but Jack grabbed her waist and spun her around with one hard jerk, trapping her against the tree and biting down on the back of her neck dominantly. Leah gasped and tried to reach for him, but he pinned her wrists over her head with one of his own, using his greater body weight to hold the young she-wolf trapped against the bark. He bit her again, hard enough that it would leave a bruise but knowing it was necessary. Her heart was racing and she was already panting, but the bite had brought her to her senses a little, and she groaned again louder.

"Fuck," Leah whispered, her body instinctively arching into his, and Jack leaned more of his weight into her.

"You're in heat, Leah," he told her quietly, trying to control his own instincts to give her what she wanted. "You should be with the Pack until it passes."

Leah let out a snarl, and he sucked on the bite mark on the back of her neck soothingly. It had the desired effect and her voice normalized a little as she growled out, "Yeah, that's a really great fucking idea, Jack. The only non-imprinted wolves in this Pack that aren't my brother are sixteen year olds."

"And me," he murmured.

"And you," Leah rolled her eyes. "But if _you_ aren't interested, I'm going in there and dragging Rico out here. I'm not in the mood to worry about breaking someone tonight."

When she threw her weight back into his, her arousal spiking again, he slammed her back into the tree. She was in rut, and in the young females, it was important to keep them away from humans until they learned to control it. To be honest, some of them never did learn, and Leah was much too young to tell if she would be one of these females. Jack wasn't allowed access to much of his past, not without being mentally assaulted by the voices that always whispered in his head, but he knew. He knew how hard this was for her, possibly he understood much better than any of the young wolves in La Push did. She was right, even the eldest wolf in La Push was barely a baby, and despite her Pack's good intentions, had no clue how to handle a she-wolf in heat.

Except for his Alpha. Jack was sure his Alpha knew best.

Jack made a soothing noise in his throat, wishing he'd had the foresight to push her deeper into the forest before trapping her. She wouldn't be easily trapped again, not without force he wasn't willing to use, and he was enough of a predator to not like his back to the crowded area from which they came. Five hundred years ago, back when he knew better, he would have handled this differently. But Jack didn't know much of anything anymore, so he let instinct guide him, and he hoisted the slender she-wolf up by the waist and hauled her deeper into the woods. She was a strong wolf, a fierce one, and by the time they were far enough away for Jack to relax, she'd given him quite a beating for dragging her about like a sack full of potatoes. But she could have chosen to phase, and she hadn't, meaning she wanted a fight but wanted it in human form.

It hit him with a clarity that he rarely felt these days, what was truly going on. Leah was hiding from her Pack, even their Alpha. She had known she was going into heat and she had fled. Again, it wouldn't be the first that a she-wolf had done so. And yet she had come here, to him, to older Pack, to the last wolf she was connect to on that deepest level that was Pack.

A person was made of ties, ties to their family, ties to their friends, ties to their homelands. And for Pack, those ties were even tighter, even more important. Jack had lived a long time, and he had once had his ties layered on top of one another to form the wolf that he had once been, thick and strong with the knowledge of who and what he was. Nearly five centuries ago, all those ties had been jaggedly severed, leaving him lost and hopeless confused. But as the ancient wolf dropped the she-wolf onto the moss covered ground, getting a fist in his jaw before her mouth was once again on his own, Jack felt one of his thousands of severed ties settle back into place.

The Alpha might know best, but in this moment, Jack knew what to do, the same as he had once known, so very long ago. Leah had come to him because she wanted to mate, needed to mate. That was something that he could do.

Leah was fast but Jack was strong, and as she suddenly started to back step to dart away, he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up, stepping forward and dropping her into the ground on her back much harder than any human female could have ever wanted. Leah merely barked out a laugh and then kicked him solidly in the chest, knocking the ancient wolf back almost twenty feet. His own shoulders hit a smaller redwood, the tree cracking, not Jack, and then with a wink, she was gone. She wanted him to chase her. Jack suddenly grinned.

This wasn't the first she-wolf who wanted that from him, and in the end, Jack had caught every single one.

She wasn't hard to track, because Jack's nose was filled with her scent, and the ancient wolf knew these woods better than the she-wolf ever could. But she was faster than he was, and she knew it, and she used it. There was nothing as wonderful as stretching out on four paws and gliding like a ghost over the earth, the wind in your ears and the myriad scents of the world filling your nose and overwhelming your senses. But this, well, this was pretty damn close. The she-wolf skirted a small ravine, and he almost caught her as she tried to double back. She slipped out of his grip as he reached for her, but this time as she ran, he was at her heels, and she couldn't shake him. Leah was laughing, ducking and weaving as she bolted through the forest, her short hair wild in the wind, almost as wild and free as she was. Jack was tempted to let her escape, because a creature like her should never be caged, never be cornered.

Leah stumbled as she fled up a nearly vertical cliff, the loose rocky dirt giving way as she neared the top, and Jack might have been tempted to let her escape, but catching her was proving to be much too fun for both of them. He pounced and she twisted, her legs locking about him and his hands keeping them there. This time her mouth on his was hungry instead of challenging, and he never really had liked that shirt anyways. She'd never be able to wear those jeans again, and he wasn't feeling particularly badly about that. They were sliding back down the cliff side, but her skin against his own burned hotter than the gravel and debris scraping his back and her knees, and he took the brunt of their fall as they tumbled the last twenty feet and slammed into a boulder, his body curling around her to brace her from the impact. And then with a possessive growl, he _had_ won after all and for tonight she was _his_, Jack flipped them both over and jerked Leah's hips into position. He gave her a moment just in case she had changed her mind, but when she let out a cry of need that was almost a sob, Jack threaded his fingers into her hair, arched her head back so that her throat was bared to him, and then buried himself inside of her.

It had been far too long.

Not too long without a woman, but far too long without Pack, without a she-wolf clawing at his back so hard it was drawing blood, far too long without having his place. His place in the Pack, his place at his Alpha's side, his place inside her. When the females were in heat, especially the youngest ones, it had always burned them from the inside out. It wasn't their fault, any more than it was the fault of the freshly phased to fight to control their thoughts and their emotions. She had only gone into heat twice before, he had learned from his Pack, and their Alpha had spent more time guarding her from herself and schooling his Pack then actually helping her. No wonder she was so desperate, why she had fled from her Packmates, from her Alpha. She should have been allowed to take the lovers she wanted, even from the imprinted wolves, and allowed her release. Well, Jack had no qualms about that.

No qualms at all.

He was usually a gentle lover, careful with his partners, but that wasn't what she needed, so that wasn't what she got. Leah's long legs hitched higher around his waist as Jack took her with long, almost brutal thrusts, pausing between each one long enough for her to feel the full effect of the next. She wanted faster, but he refused, and when she snarled at him in frustration, Jack buried his teeth in Leah's throat. She wasn't used to wolf sex, wasn't used to being dominated, and startled, she twisted, rolling them right off the boulder. It dislodged him, and Jack tried to take the brunt of the fall again, ending up on his back, Leah on her knees straddling him. For a second the she-wolf paused, staring at him and herself in shock. Both were covered in dirt and bits of brush from the slide down the hill, and Jack was bleeding on his shoulders and arms from her urging him on. She was bruised on her neck, front and back, from his aggressive biting and his hands spanning her hips were digging in.

Then suddenly Jack grinned at her and gave her a rear end a light pop. "You started it," he murmured, teasingly. "_You_ seduced me."

Leah nodded, agreeing, but she seemed confused. Again, unsurprising since this was new to her, and Jack made a soft crooning noise in his throat.

"Ya bisapsi'cux, Leah," he told her gently. "We are Pack, so I always will. We can stop if you wish and run until the fire in your belly is quenched, but there are better ways."

She was quiet for a moment, and then let out a pained noise, indicating that the heat was burning her again. Her scent spiked and Leah's hands gripped Jack's shoulders as he understood, wordlessly guiding her back into place. This time he was a gentle lover, at least for the few minutes that she let him be, but then the compulsion, the need inherent in her kind in these times took over. She needed to be loved hard, hard enough that mating with a normal human would have only frustrated her, and knowing this Jack put her back to the ground. It felt good to not have to practice restraint with a breakable lover, felt good to feel her hands over his broad chest, his muscled abdominals, his scarred shoulder blades, urging him on. She-wolves were hard to please, but not impossible, and as she cried out and arched up, Jack felt an intense feeling of pleasure twist his belly. Pleasure that he had pleased her, pleasure that she was Pack, pleasure that she had chosen him instead of any of the others. In honesty, none of them would have been able to refuse her, except perhaps their Third, who Jack suspected had Mated deeply with his imprint. But she had come to him, and it felt so damn good to just be _needed_ again.

Jack wasn't sure how long they spent out there, only that his stamina was pretty good, and three separate times he had been forced to stop and give himself a moment to regain his self-control. It was extremely inappropriate to take one's own pleasure when mating with a female in rut, something he himself had punished younger, more foolish brothers for after the fact. They protected their own, didn't take advantage of them, and the she-wolves were no exception to that rule. But the hard fast loving eventually slowed, as Leah seemed to come slowly back to herself. Somewhere along the line, it stopped being Jack holding Leah to him and the other way around.

Trembling, Jack started to pull away, feeling his clarity slip now that her needs weren't as clear and his role in this now less defined, but Leah pulled him back down. Strong brown limbs entangled, her hands encouraging him to take the comfort from her that she had found in him. Pack. Another tie tightening down into place, and it hurt so damn much, even that little bit of his old self given back to him, that he buried his face in her shoulder and shook, even as he tried to make this better for her, better than she'd ever had. And maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't, but he tried, and he had lost count of how many times he had pulled one more soft cry from her throat. She might not have done it on purpose, but even as her thighs tightened around his hips, their Pack tightened down on him as well.

Jack had forgotten this part, how sex between two wolves strengthened the Pack, pulled each in even tighter. He felt his Alpha's surprise, the heat of jealous anger, followed by a softer understanding, and then his Alpha's relief and gratitude. He didn't understand, but Leah's mouth tasted good, and her skin felt better, and the rest of her was beyond amazing. She was whispering to him softly, whispering his own words back to him, because they were Pack, and that meant she loved him too. A third and final tie tightening down, only three of thousands, but it was enough to bring his small lonely world crashing down upon his shoulders, breaking him even as it built. Lost beneath that wave of endless emotion, Jack barely managed to shove himself away from her and off to the side, not willing to insult his Alpha's only she-wolf by—

Her hand around his length, her breasts pressed to his deeply scarred back, and her soft sigh, telling him he was so stupid sometimes. Jack shivered as his seed hit the dirt beneath them, life to the life giver, then groaned as her need spiked again. It wasn't her fault, he hadn't given her enough to ease her through this, she was young, and Jack _would_ do better. So he dragged her across his lap and started all over again, determined to do everything in his power to help his Packmate the very best he was able. Leah seemed to appreciate that more than he would have thought. It really shouldn't have been a surprise, though. After all, Leah had learned a long time ago how precious a gift it was for someone, anyone to give a damn.

And Jack, well, to him nothing at this moment mattered more.

* * *

Back in her parent's cottage, Renesmee lay curled up in her bed, holding onto the stuffed pig that her Grandpa Charlie had given her two years ago. She was snoring lightly against the worn pink fuzz, and somehow one of the little floppy ears had made its way into her mouth. Her mother was still singing to her softly, lovingly, Bella calm in her certainty that between Jacob and Edward, they'd work everything out.

Here at the treaty line, Edward Cullen wasn't so sure.

The vampires were on their side, three against at the entire Pack, minus Leah Clearwater and Jacob's newest wolf. Now that the Alpha wasn't distracted by Edward's daughter, the way Jacob always was when Nessie was around, the tension in the air had grown significantly. This wasn't a fight Edward wanted, but it wasn't the wolves in the wrong here, it had been their side. Did he love his brother and sister for going after Nessie? Of course. But it hadn't been the wisest thing to do. Jacob Black adored Bella and Renesmee Cullen, respected Carlisle Cullen, but only tolerated the rest of them. They were vampires, and on some level they would always be the ultimate enemy.

That was what was flooding through Jacob's mind the most as he stood there glaring furiously at Edward from his side of the line. That and if Nessie had hunted Jacob, she could have easily hunted one of the reservation's human residents. If Ness had been any of the rest of them, maybe even Bella, Jacob would have had the Pack take them down. That was the deal, permission was needed for their entrance on each other's territory, the wolves could go to Forks but in human form only and only as necessary. The vampires could cross the reservation, but only accompanied and with the Alpha's permission. That was the deal.

Nessie had broken that deal by doing the one thing that the Cullens simply couldn't do, she had hunted on their lands and not just wildlife. And Jacob was angry with himself, because instead of holding firm in the face of his enemies, he had acted on instinct, he had _fed_ Nessie and sent her home. He had fed her, like being a bloodsucker was okay. It wasn't okay.

Jacob was struggling with himself, and as much as Edward wanted to plead his daughter's case, reminding the Alpha that Edward could hear the Alpha's thoughts was asking for trouble. It had been a lot easier when Jacob and Edward could fight the way they used to, when both weren't held so tightly by a treaty that they now were both afraid to lose on either side. Too many decisions had been made together, decisions that alienated both sides from their own kinds, and separating now could be dangerous.

The Alpha was trying to decide what he was angriest about and he settled on Renesmee. It was easiest for him to fight Edward and Bella for her, as if she needed a champion from her own family, who loved her more than anything. It was beyond frustrating, but that bizarre need the Alpha felt to defend Nessie was what had saved her life tonight. Tonight could have been bad.

"I know I don't have to tell you how fucked up this could have gotten," Jacob finally snarled at Edward, his lips wrinkling up to bare his teeth unconsciously.

"I am aware, Jacob," Edward acknowledged, once again biting down on his tongue.

"What…_the fuck_…was she doing that hungry?" the Alpha spat, his wolves stiffening around him in response to his rage. "And where the _hell_ were the rest of you bloodsuckers that you didn't know about it?"

Edward calmed himself even more. "It was an accident, Jacob, but I can promise that it won't happen again. I assure you that we'll have Renesmee under constant supervision from now on, and if you feel that isn't sufficient, I will move Bella and our daughter to Alaska the way we had intended three years ago."

It had seemed the right thing to say, but a tremor rolled through the Alpha, and Seth's thought were warning in nature, pushing slightly past the barrier of privacy the wolves were learning to build as they aged and matured into their wolf forms. As a human, Jacob's thoughts weren't nearly as guarded in nature, and Edward didn't need Seth to warn him that Jacob had taken that as a threat. The territorial snarl was more than sufficient. Then abruptly, Jacob grew distracted, confused, his mind flickering to thoughts of Leah and wondering why—

The Alpha suddenly shook his head and gave Edward another angry look. "We'll talk about it later, leech. I'm coming by tomorrow after school to make sure Ness is okay, and I'm bringing the Pack too. You guys owe all of us a few steaks or some shit for this, and for the record, the next time that little girl is hungry enough I have to feed her _for_ you assholes, someone's getting hurt."

"I don't starve my daughter, _dog_," Edward growled back, the insult too much, and Jacob just growled back. Emmett was starting to look a little bored, because if they hadn't fought yet, it probably wasn't happening.

"Yeah?" the Alpha stated sarcastically. "Didn't seem like it from this side," he muttered. Then as Jacob turned away, he threw a smirk at Rosalie. "Hey Barbie, you better start cooking. I like my steaks medium rare, and your ass broke the treaty line first."

Rosalie's reply was less than cordial. It may have involved fileting wolves and making shish kabobs out of them, but the Alpha just flipped her off and disappeared into the night, his Pack trailing at his heels and casting looks back at the vampires. Realizing why, Edward and his family stepped away several meters from the treaty line, just to make the wolves happy. Rosalie gave Edward an apologetic glance and then disappeared back towards the house, muttering something about rat poison dry rubs.

"Well, that could have gone better," Emmett sighed unhappily, forgetting that he and Rose's lack of attention had precipitated the evening's events. "We can't even break the treaty and get a good fight out of them. You know, I've really been itching for something a little more fun, life has been so _boring_ lately."

Edward Cullen smiled for the first time since he had thought his daughter was about to get eaten, but it wasn't a nice smile. Just for the fun of it, Jared and Brady stayed to watch. There may or may not have been popcorn involved, but Jared owed Brady ten bucks, and by morning time, everyone got to see Emmett stick his arm back in its socket. Good times.

* * *

Night had turned to day, and Jack lay curled protectively around the exhausted and sleeping Leah.

He had forgotten what it was like to be lost in sex with a female of his kind, although he was pleased that she had stayed this long, long enough for him to work her through the worst of it. Jack ran a hand over her smooth belly and sighed softly into her hair. The scent of being in heat was still there, but tempered with the scent of sex and himself. It occurred to him briefly that his Alpha might be angry at him for this, but then decided against it. Jealous maybe, but not angry. The Alpha had said she could chose as she wished, he didn't dictate which beds his female could lay in, and that was one of the many reasons why Jack had such faith in his Alpha. In a world where their females had become mere possessions, ways of gaining strength for an Alpha, Jake did things his own way. Not only his own way, Jake did things the Old Ways, instinctively without having to be told.

"He is a worthy Alpha, and one to be respected," Jack murmured softly to himself, and she-wolf stirred, apparently not as asleep as he had thought. Leah chuckled, stretching briefly before wiggling back into the warmth of his body, and then she yawned.

"You know, some girls might get their feelings hurt if they woke up to their lover idolizing some man," Leah teased, sleepiness making her voice breathy. Jack would never take advantage, but she was right there and so nice and pliant as he wrapped his arms around her, so he dipped his mouth to her heart, making a buzzing noise playfully against her skin before drifting to more interesting parts.

"You are not just some girl," Jack assured her in a soft rumble, and then he grinned against her breast. "You are my Packmate. And my Alpha is not just some man, as you yourself have thought upon occasion. Perhaps my Packmate chose the wrong bed to take to last night."

"Hardly," Leah sighed, and then she eyed Jack suspiciously. He had been making popping noises on her nipples, and when he caught her staring at him, he blushed slightly, cleared his throat, and then did so one last time. Leah flicked him in the forehead, and Jack chuckled, his mouth curving into a small smile as he shifted away from her. He knew last night for what it was, sex and nothing more. Meaningful sex he believed on both sides, but they were not mates, and she-wolves rarely allowed that kind of close proximity for long. Leah grinned and poked her finger into his side as Jack stretched out next to her, enjoying the rare sunshine on his skin.

"I like you like this," Leah decided, yawning again. "It's nice when you're happy. And thanks for last night, it helped. It helped a lot, actually." Leah seemed to think about it, and then frowned, looking embarrassed. Her voice dropped, sounding defensive but apologetic as she added, "Sorry I kind of attacked you, though, that wasn't very cool. I just could feel it coming and the last time was so miserable…The guys were so weird, Seth was embarrassed even though he tried really hard to hide it, and things are complicated enough between me and Jake without me clawing at him to get laid. I needed to bail, and ended up at the bar. I guess I should be thankful I didn't end up in California again, I keep running south every time I get worked up."

"It isn't something to be apologetic for, Leah," Jack murmured quietly. "It is difficult for our sisters to bear young, and they can only conceive when in heat, so the need to mate is aggressive in nature. Far stronger than is fair to them, and their actions are of no fault of their own. You would not be the first to run when wishing things to be…less complicated. As they mature, the others will understand, but for now, their wolves are as young as they and have yet to learn to temper their own drives to mate."

Leah turned and looked at him, her brown eyes curious. "We're all just infants in your eyes, aren't we?"

Jack said nothing, because to agree would be insulting his Pack, but to disagree would be to ignore the obvious. So instead he sat up, stole one last popping noise and yawned himself. "Are you hungry?" he asked, before politely adding, "It is customary for the male to hunt for the one he has lain with."

"You worked me that hard, huh?" Leah grinned, and Jack's lips curved again into a smile.

"The male eats first," Jack explained. "And depending how much effort he has expended to account for her lack of effort, the more meat he takes," Jack stood and stretched, feeling his bones crack pleasantly. Then he squatted down and placed his hand on her stomach, fingers spread wide as he added, "Your belly is small, so the scraps left over when I am done should fill you sufficiently, sister."

Leah snapped her teeth at him, but laughed and climbed to her feet, ignoring his offered hand. Then she bumped her shoulder into his, smirking. "I would say yes to a plate of waffles, but it's a little early for raw meat, don't you think?"

"Then I will hunt the waffles," Jack murmured. "Having risked a night between the thighs of a deadly beauty and lived to tell of her many wonders, I fear not that which is the prey of this hunt."

"Because you were brave enough to have sex with me, you're not scared of waffles?" Leah asked, a little confused, so Jack hummed, pinched the curve of her bared backside, and then phased. He hit the ground running, the she-wolf hot on his heels, and as they headed for the home that Jack still hoped one day he might be allowed back into, he felt the weight of his Alpha press upon him. Jake was angry at Leah for bailing without saying where she was going. Jake was angry that she had bailed without warning him she was going into heat. Jake was really angry that she had wandered about unaccompanied, when she knew damn well that she was unpredictable when she was—

Leah thought very clearly, in vivid detail, about how good it had felt having Jack fuck her senseless all night, and thanks to Jack, Leah was coming home.

The Alpha…was glad Leah was coming home and please don't think that shit ever again. And if Jack was hunting waffles for Leah, Jake wanted some too. Seth wanted to know why Jack was hunting waffles for Leah, and Leah broke her Alpha's request, replaying the exact same image in her mind for Seth's benefit. Seth's first thought was he was going to kill Jack. His second thought was how unrealistic that was, Jack would probably kill him first. His third thought, helpfully added to his brain by Leah, was that if it hadn't been Jack, it would have been Collin, Brady, or Rico, and he was welcome to kill any of those three if he wanted.

Collin wanted to know why the hell Seth was suddenly chasing him across the reservation, oww! That was his tail! And if Jack was hunting waffles because he nailed Leah…wait, _Jack_ nailed _Leah_?

_NO_. And Leah needed to get her ass over to Jake's house. If she was in heat, he wanted her close and they needed to talk about what happened last night with the Cullens. The she-wolf let out a long suffering sigh. Okay, forget the waffles, the Pack was intruding far too much on Leah's post coital bliss, but Jack could catch that rabbit for her. After all, it was customary. The ancient wolf did as asked, it was only polite, and post coital bliss did make one even as old as him feel like hunting this early. Seth didn't want to know, lalalala, but chewing on Collin helped things significantly. Even as the young wolf screeched, Jack trotted up to a surprised looking Leah proudly, the fat hare in his jaws. Leah snuffed the hare, declared it dinner, and Seth was cleaning it for her if he wanted any.

No one thought anything, except for the Beta. Seth was muttering something about fur being caught in his teeth, and it never occurred to Jack that his Beta was shielding them all from him, shielding their thoughts and their astonishment. Jack never realized what he had done, that he had broken his previous Alpha's order, that he had crossed the border he had stayed on this side of for five centuries, for a hare. Laying the hare at Leah's feet, the ancient wolf nuzzled his Packmate's neck fondly and then slipped back towards Hoquiam, back to a vampire and loneliness, back where he was convinced he belonged.

The ancestors never said a thing.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N Sorry this took so long. I could blame NaNoWriMo, but mostly I was feeling uninspired. I don't think this is my best work, but it's a nice sized chapter, so hopefully that helps. :) Time wise, we're in the beginning of October now. Thanks to all my reviewers: _SugaLumps, MadToTheBone1, moani-sama, megawords19, cylobaby, KerryH, LadyMonday, TeffieS, StealthLiberal, hilja, 82c10akaLynn, katieklutz, toalli, Buffyk0604, happiness is my goal, Elvira Iula, LightIsPrecious, Roonani, laurazuleta18, lionandlamblover, dirtychicken, hefors, The all might and powerfulM, mcc3654, chicadee74, MargotTenn, NeeNee38, _and_ ally leigh._ You guys rock!

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Three

_There came a night where Qa'al was called upon to attend the council of elders in a matter of great importance. _

_To be honest, Qa'al wondered if he should bother attend the elders at all. However T'sikáti needed Qa'al_ _to be there, and there was nowhere that Qa'al would not go for his Alpha. That was why he obeyed, slipping through the village on silent feet, even though he had been napping against the youngest wolf's hip and had been very comfortable in doing so. Qa'al had an idea why he was being summoned, after all the preparations for a Tlokwali ceremony had stopped, so _something_ had gone wrong. Wrong enough that his Beta was bristling with the Alpha's annoyance, so much so that the Beta had taken Qa'al's advice and stayed away from the council meeting. After all, if the elders weren't listening to T'sikáti in this matter, the Beta's opinions would hold no sway. _

_Qa'al's presence wasn't required for his opinion. No, he was being summoned because he had a task to do, for in their tribe only Qa'al was shaman. _

_As Qa'al unconsciously followed his nose to his Alpha's side, he caught the hint of the youth and the youth's Makah sister on the wind, the smell of female human and of male wolf. If one used their nose, they could tell much, and there was none amongst the Tlokwali that could not smell that the boy had changed. The elders had no such noses, and they could only go by what they saw, or what Qa'al could see for them. As soon as the young man had gained his guardian spirit, he had grown ill, as did all that gained a guardian spirit, and traditionally when such an event occurred, it was then that the tribe's shaman was called to look at who had gained said guardian spirit. The shaman would determine by its color if the guardian spirit was of the Qela'akwal, the hunting society, or the Tsayeq, the fishing society. And it was only the shaman who would know if it was one of the rarest of cases, and that the sickness was caused by guardian spirit that was the Tlokwali, the wolf. _

_Or, in Qa'al and T'sikáti's cases, they could sniff once and be done with the matter. _

_It had never occurred to Qa'al that he would have been called to determine the color of the guardian spirit of this Makah blooded youth, after all he had already performed his duty when finding the boy. Qa'al did not need to know the color of his sickness, because that color would not be the color of the Qela'akwal or of the Tsayeq guardian spirits. The youth was of the Tlokwali, undoubtedly so, and as such should have the ceremony started immediately. It appeared however that the elders were stalling, and in stalling, there was a good chance that the youth could die. Perhaps that had been the point all along._

_The ceremony always took place in the Tlokwali-house, but it was not there that Qa'al had been summoned. Instead he had been summoned to the furthest house from there, the one in which T'sikáti resided with Qa'al alone. It was a rarity for the Alpha to not live in the Tlokwali-house, but as their numbers grew and grew, the house had become full. Even with only the highest members residing there, the Tlokwali-house was too cramped for comfort, and as such T'sikáti had decided to leave the Beta to hold the house in T'sikáti's stead. It was a less than subtle attempt on the part of the Alpha to have his Beta take more authority, and as the Alpha slipped off the live in the serenity of the furthest house from the center of the village, a small one that was old and needed much fixing for anyone who wasn't Tlokwali to reside in comfortably, Qa'al as always had followed. It had never occurred to him not to, that he wouldn't be welcome, and it never occurred to T'sikáti that Qa'al would have chosen to do any less. In truth, it had only been Qa'al's attachment to being in the Tlokwali-house that had made T'sikáti stay as long as he had. _

_Where the fishhook hovered, so the fish remained. _

_They had spent several years here, having only wasted supplies on fixing that which was needed to keep them dry and comfortable, and while both wolves occasionally found someone warm and obliging to join their respective sides of the longhouse, it remained only them. Their home. Therefore it was the last place that Qa'al should have been summoned, and in being summoned, felt his Alpha's growing wrath. It took much to push T'sikáti to anger, but a possible brother dying before he could become a true brother was one of those things. _

_Qa'al gave the dark haired woman standing nervously outside his home a cursory glance, but then he looked again. She smelled of fear and anger, but she was shivering in the growing cold. The blanket she had carried with them was nowhere in sight, and Qa'al frowned. However there was nothing he could do at the moment, it was a council of elders that he was summoned to, and even if she hadn't been Makah and their enemy in blood, she had not been summoned. It may have been his house, but she could not come in. Still, Qa'al paused and gave her what kindness he could. _

_"Ayásochid, Tuktukadi?" he asked gently, having learned her name when he had teasingly returned her knife to her. He had made her trade the one thing for the other, her name for her blade, and it had been clear she didn't know he had won the better trade. The woman met his eyes, frowned, and then looked away. Apparently she was not pleased, and did not answer his polite inquiry to how she was. She was brave to ignore him, but not so brave that she didn't tremble when he stepped closer as he moved past. Qa'al's face mirrored her frown. He never had liked to see anyone afraid. _

_In the center of the longhouse, T'sikáti sat at the head of the dying youth, his hand resting on the boy's shoulder. The youth was deep in his fever now. Usually the fever ended after the first shift from man to wolf and back, stabilized to the constant heat that the Tlokwali lived with but were no longer sickened by. But sometimes if one shifted alone, without the guidance of an Alpha who anticipated and helped the change, that one could be damaged in a multiple of ways. An extended fever was one of these things. But having an Alpha would almost immediately take that fever away. It was why they had an Alpha, to protect them and guide them. It was why T'sikáti's hand was where it was, because Makah blooded or not, the youth was a lost brother and needed to be taken and made Tlokwali. _

_The gathered elders, sitting further away from the boy, made it clear from their disapproving expressions and stiffened body postures that they felt the youth should not. At one point, T'sikáti could have ignored their disapproval and done what he wished, but he was no longer the chief of their tribe, had offered back that position many seasons ago with the claim he was too old to be wise. With enough age came wisdom. With enough wisdom, one merely felt old. The current chief, he who was highest in the Qela'akwal, hadn't had his fill of wisdom yet and looked to be the most disapproving. _

_Qa'al shared a look with T'sikáti and smiled slightly at his Alpha's frown. The fish looked grumpy today, perhaps Qa'al should have hurried? T'sikáti thought that yes, the fishhook should have hurried, and that Qa'al needed to flirt with pretty women on his own time. _

_Ahh. Grumpy indeed._

_"You summoned me, Alpha?" Qa'al said respectfully, although by rights he should have only acknowledged the Alpha after the tribal chief. The chief stiffened angrily and the elders' disapproval was now directed at Qa'al, but Qa'al ignored it easily. He was too old to care for the opinions of those that were just children compared to T'sikáti and himself. Qa'al never knew why T'sikáti tried so hard to maintain the peace. Normally T'sikáti would chastise him for his impertinence, but T'sikáti was distracted and unhappy and seemed unconcerned with Qa'al's slight disrespect to those that caused his Alpha to be displeased._

_"This child is Makah," the tribal chief spoke up in voice made raspy with age, not allowing the Alpha to speak first. "There is no doubt that he has been taken with the sickness that is a guardian spirit, but it is doubtful that he can be what the Makah woman says. We would like for you to check him again, Qa'al. In case you were…mistaken."_

_It was a disrespect in turn, one aimed at Qa'al, but Qa'al was more amused than anything and nodded his acquiescence. He was the Quileute shaman, and as such had his duty. So the old wolf took his place beside the youth, met his Alpha's eyes once, and as the elders began tapping out a slow rhythm against their hips, he allowed himself to relax. The rituals were unnecessary at this point, but Qa'al followed them anyways to appease those his Alpha chose to appease. He began chanting softly, supplications to the spirits and the ancestors to enter him, to share with him their knowledge, to let him see that which the boy had been, and was, and would become. _

_The world became clouded, slower, thicker and harder to move through. The spirits had entered him as requested, and in doing so made Qa'al their own. He wished to see with their eyes, and with the encouragement of the ancestors, the spirits granted him such, if he was strong enough to bear an extended stay in their world. The voices around him grew louder, faster, helping him move through this spirit world that he was now a part of. The Makah blood heating the boy's veins made it difficult, and the ancestors were rejecting that side, so Qa'al prayed harder. His eyes had closed as the spirits spoke with his own guardian spirit, as the ancestors in turn spoke with him, telling him what to do. And as the Alpha raised his own voice with the others, strengthening Qa'al once more, the old wolf became that which he was not and saw that which he should not have been able to see. _

_His eyes came back open, but that which had been was no longer. Where there had once been the bodies of the elders and his Alpha, there was only the dark brown of the Qela'akwal, and the red of two Tsayeq that flanked the Qela'akwal. Outshining both in sheer size and brilliance was the absolute blackness and pristine whiteness twisting together into that which was his Alpha, Tlokwali, two spirits that must exist in perfect harmony with each other. Qa'al felt his own guardian spirit drawn to that of his Alpha's, Qa'al no longer a body but a twisting of spiritual color as well. Black and white, intertwined carefully and equal in every way, if not as perfect in hue as the Alpha. It would be easy to allow himself to be lost in that, but to lose one's self in the spirit world was to lose one's heart and health, and even sometimes to lose one's mind. So Qa'al did as he must and focused on what this journey had been made for._

_At their feet the youth faded, the black and white of the Tlokwali curling slowly into a soft grey. Balanced, yes, but blending into nothing._

_He needed to come back, but the spirits had a hold of him. He was the wolf, running across the land. He was the bird, dipping through the skies. He was the otter playing in the rivers. He was the whale, singing its song as it swam deeper and deeper, carrying him home._

_Home was not an ocean. It was with T'sikáti leading their wolves against the Cold Ones, it was worried little Chibód running after a grinning Wisá álita through the woods, it was a fire that they did not need to warm their bones as they looked up at the stars and remembered the seasons unnumbered. It wasn't with the spirits. It was here, with Qa'al's Alpha. That was home._

_As he so often did, it was T'sikáti who brought him back. Qa'al slumped against his Alpha's shoulder, panting and exhausted. _

_"He is Tlokwali," Qa'al managed to say, voice raspy and roughened. "For a day or two more and then he will be gone. But he is Tlokwali and deserves to live."_

_The elders began to mutter, but Qa'al didn't care to hear what they would say. It was out of his hands now. Too weak to support himself, Qa'al leaned into his Alpha's strength as T'sikáti began arguing with the elders as to whether or not the youth be allowed to die. It wasn't that he wouldn't support his Alpha, but the spirits had drained him and left his throat dry and painful. _

_From the doorway of the house, Tuktukadi watched this all with worried eyes. And she watched the first man that she had heard openly protect her brother, watched him rub his throat and cough, a deep painful rattling noise. It was Tuktukadi's bravery that saved her brother's life, because it was her feet that entered a place she was not allowed, and her hands that offered a small cup of water to a man she was afraid of, the eyes of that man's grateful Alpha looking on. Qa'al smiled at her despite the offended elders muttering at the woman, accepted the water and drank gratefully as the woman touched her brother's fevered brow before ducking her head and slipping back outside into the cold. Slaves had been killed for less, but not today. _

_Today was when the honored T'sikáti, the hope of the Quileute, made their tribe's most important decision. T'sikáti allowed a Makah blooded boy to become Tlokwali, and in doing so, sealed the fate of an entire people. _

_In hindsight, Qa'al never was able to say if he should have refused that cup._

* * *

The young wolf stood on human feet, stripped to his waist and covered in sweat and blood. His time fighting was done, he had won as he usually did, and now it was time to watch another. Down in the roughly dug training pit, a different wolf was about to die.

Up on the rim, the young wolf was panting hard, but not from exertion. After all, he had regained his wind a while ago. No, he was panting because he was angry. Angry they were forcing him to watch this, because instinct told him the wolf down in the pit would make a mistake and there was nothing the young wolf could do about it. Angry he hadn't gone with the northern Alpha when he had the chance, because as much as he had feared the unknown, after months of this…well, there wasn't a lot he could imagine that wouldn't on some level be preferable. Angry he was going to have to kill again, if not later today, then soon.

The young wolf didn't like killing, but he liked dying less. He had grown up on the darker side of the city, was no stranger to violence, was no stranger to death. He knew what it felt like to have a bullet graze your shoulder, knew what it felt like to have another do more than graze your back, knew what it was like to watch someone hurt someone else just because they could, and he knew what it was like to stand there and do nothing. He knew cages, cages made of metal bars and racial profiling and sliding educational systems. He knew survival was more than who was the strongest. It was who was the smartest, who knew when to stand up and fight and who knew when to duck his head and keep his eyes on the ground. He knew how to lead and he had been taught how to follow or get killed.

It didn't take money to buy the kind of education the young wolf had received, but it sure cost a whole hell of a lot.

Someone hadn't taught the wolf in front of him these things. Twice the young wolf's age and half his size, that one had just made a serious mistake and now was dying beneath the fangs of the newest addition to their collection, a young lean newborn of especially vicious nature. The newborn was starving, and as it fell upon the downed wolf to feed, the Alpha let out a hiss of anger. The young wolf didn't know why he was so angry. The Alpha was the one that always ordered them into the pits.

The Alpha loved them in his own way, even though they were all used to the fact that they could die any day, the Alpha included. They all trained, they all fought, they all risked, and they all were rewarded by still living at the end of the day. Their leader was no exception. So it was the Alpha that dropped lightly into the training pit, causing the newborn to growl and twist his way. The young vampire crouched, hissing, his skin sparkling like diamonds in the heavy southern sun, and the Alpha tilted his head to the side, letting the bones and muscles crack and settle. The Alpha eyed his dying wolf regretfully, the Pack would mourn the loss of him deeply, but that was the cost of where they were, what they did, the mission they had dedicated themselves to.

The Alpha closed his eyes and exhaled. He hated wasteful days such as these.

Vampires were hard to come by, newborns even harder, but if one killed their own, that wasn't something that could be forgiven. It was inconvenient, but the Alpha had a duty to the wolf seizing and dying at their feet. When the newborn struck, the Alpha's eyes were still closed, but by the time the Alpha's eyes were open again, the vampire's head had been ripped from its body and dangled in the Alpha's hand. The vampire wasn't dead yet, it took more than this to kill one. But it was almost dead, in an extreme amount of pain, and was letting out a shrill keening noise that only stopped when the Alpha gave the head a good hard shake and broke its jaw in annoyance. Then he sighed and tossed the head on the newborn's body. If it could put itself back together again, then maybe they would keep it after all. Like he had said before, newborns were hard to come by.

The Alpha knelt next to the wolf, who was keening in his own pain, even though he was biting through his lip to try and hold back. This was the most painful way for a wolf to die and the Alpha knew it. He leaned in, whispered softly of how proud he was of the dying wolf, and how he would one day run at their sides even if they were never to return to the lands of their people. For the dying wolf's courage and strength, he the Alpha would make sure their Pack would run in the next life, even without the ancestors to join them and guide them. Then the Alpha brushed a loving hand over his wolf's brow and broke the wolf's neck.

It was a swift death, and in their world, a swift death was a better thing than the multiple alternatives. The Pack stood along the rim of the training pit, and as their Alpha raised his voice in sorrow, so did they lift their own voices. All but one. Alone the young wolf watched silently, watched his Alpha, watched the vampire not die. That dead wolf had been kind, but that kindness had been double sided. The dead wolf had taught him how to finally phase back to his human form, but had introduced him to an Alpha that now owned him. The dead wolf had offered the young wolf back a somewhat normal life, and left him a slave. Taye had respected the dead wolf but hated him. Callous as it was, Taye felt no grief.

Everyone was going to die sometime.

Someone had taught the young wolf when to stand and fight, and it showed in much of Taye's actions, so no one was particularly surprised when he dropped down into the pit and flicked a pocket lighter open. He waited to be challenged but was not, and beneath his Alpha's calculating gaze, the young wolf stood over the parts of the vampire and burned that fucker to the ground. Again he felt no grief. To be honest, he didn't feel much at all besides anger these days. He had stopped being afraid the moment this Alpha had taken him over, the moment he had learned his new lot in life. But anger he knew. Everyone died, but Taye angrily knew that some shouldn't have to go as soon as they did. It was a damn waste, and that _was_ something to be sad about. Glancing once at the Alpha, the young wolf turned and made his way out of the pit, his Packmates hauling him back to the rim so that he could take his place at their sides.

The Alpha nodded his approval, closed his eyes, and whispered a prayer to the ancestors. He asked them to help them earn their Alpha's forgiveness, even if it killed them all. Up on the rim, a young wolf named Taye watched a vampire burn before he finally lifted his own voice in song.

* * *

There was an invisible line drawn between Jack and his Pack, a line that he wouldn't cross. It was also a line that his Pack seemed oblivious to. As the mass of yawning sleepy bodies wandered over to where Jack sat waiting patiently after having finished his patrol, there was not a single wolf who shied away from what Jack himself couldn't do, uncaringly stepping across the border to his side of the line.

For not the first time, Jack wondered at the fact that his Pack went so far out of their way to accommodate him. For not the first time his heart filled with pride for it.

Jack had been told that of all the wolves, Sam Uley, Jared Qahla, and Paul Coho would be the ones that would not ever be late for a Pack meeting, no matter when or where, and having attended one every two weeks since returning from Calgary, Jack had learned this was very true. He had also learned that Seth Clearwater would never be on time for a meeting anywhere unless everyone came to where he was at, and Jake would never get there until Seth did. Jake hated meetings with a passion, hated holding them, hated running them, hated forcing anyone else to do something he himself wouldn't want to do. Jack however had no problem with them. Anytime he was able to be with his Pack in their entirety, it didn't make just his morning, it made his entire week. He would spend the next thirteen days eagerly waiting for the next one, and therefore it was with pleasure he waited for his Pack. He'd wait much longer than two weeks to get to see all of them at the same time. The wolf he had once been would have laughed at Jack for his eagerness, but this Jack didn't care.

This Jack was nearly quivering with the pleasure of being with his Pack again.

The brindled wolf crouched on his belly and sank lower into the grass as dominant wolf after dominant wolf approached him, but Jack's tail was wagging harder. Sam and Jared were already there, involved in a deep conversation about Brady that Jack was trying not to listen to, but when the wolf in question came jogging out of the woods with Collin sleepily in tow, Jack made a soft whining noise and scooted forward on his belly a little closer to the border line. The younger wolves were still unused to being more dominant than anyone, and while Collin was settling into it naturally, in fact seemed to expect it since he was more dominant than Brady as well and had been since Missoula, Brady was surprised and pleased every time Jack reminded them of his place beneath them. So Jack made a point of doing it, and never failed to get at least a few companionable thumps on the ruff or shoulders for it. This was a particularly good day, because as Collin dropped dramatically to the grass and declared that it was fucking cruel to have meetings before school, on a _Friday_ no less, Brady just yawned and sat down between Jack and Collin. Brady reached over and grabbed Jack by the ruff of the neck and the ancient wolf grunted in surprise when Brady hauled him over his lap, then draped forward over Jack's neck and shoulder, making him a pillow.

Collin eyed that for all of three seconds before deciding that Brady was brilliant, and Jack found his side being used as a nice warm furry backrest for the other young wolf.

"He's not your fucking furniture," Leah told them all as she yawned and wandered up, giving Jack an amused look before flopping to the grass nearly as dramatically as Collin. She then sat up, scooted backwards, and ended up shoulder to shoulder with Collin, settling into Jack's ribcage. "Okay yeah, he's furniture."

The Beta and Quil had just left the trees, Embry in tow, and Seth gave Embry a grin as he saw the four wolves. "If Jack's tail wags any harder, I think he's going to take flight," Seth chuckled teasingly, although the Beta made sure to cuff both Brady and Jack on the heads as he and Embry walked by. Embry looked tired and stressed and was holding a crumpled sheet of paper in his hand as he stayed at Seth's side. Quil glared at Collin once, who glared back for a moment but then sighed and shifted over closer to Jack's front leg as Quil happily plopped down between Leah and Collin. The tail started to wag even harder, Jared and Sam were chuckling as Leah was forced to grab Jack's tail and tuck it under her arm to keep from getting whacked in the stomach any more. Jack sighed contentedly, resting his head on Brady's kicked out leg. He had missed this more than he could ever be able to explain.

Finally Jake came trotting out of the woods, a frown on his face as he looked particularly alert for this early. The Alpha being unhappy wasn't ever good, and as much as Jack loved being his Pack's furniture, it was more important to him to be supportive of his Alpha than anything.

When one had had a thousand years to perfect phasing, they can learn to do so without harming a single hair on a group of people's heads. The fun part was that when Jack became human again, he also became significantly smaller and caused his Packmates to fall back on top of him collectively. Leah was the only one who handled such with dignity, but then again she had learned two weeks ago to appreciate that which sent Jack's male Packmates cursing and scattering. Jack was wolf again before they had finished leaping up in horror, Collin insisting that Jack's ball sack was never allowed anywhere near his back again, and Leah smirked and took the more comfortable position against Jack's furry canine belly. The Alpha had stared in shock for a moment, and then burst out laughing at the disgusted looks Quil and Collin and Brady's faces. Even Jared and Sam were grinning.

"It's your own faults," Jake chuckled, sharing a smirk with Embry as he joined the Beta and fourth. "Give him an opening and Jack's gonna fuck with you."

"Yeah, very funny man," Quil growled, blushing a little because unlike Collin, something actually had been near his back, and Jake's grin grew. Jack felt his Alpha's amusement deep in his belly, and it warmed him, and he couldn't help his tongue lolling out happily.

"Okay, all joking aside, we've got some business to take care of, then I have to go cheat off Seth for a math test," Jake said. "Before anyone asks, I gave Paul the morning off. He's out of sorts and needs a break."

"I'm worried about him, Jake," Collin said softly, once more repeating his overly voiced concern. "Is it really a good idea for Paul to just take off right now-?"

"Drop it already, Collin," Jared barked, and Brady shot a quick warning glance at his friend when Collin bristled under the command. Jack had seen it many times before now, a young wolf who wasn't matured enough to rise in rank but whose wolf resisted not being in charge. One day Collin would outrank Jared, but today wasn't that day, and Jared leveled a look at Collin that forced the younger wolf to back down. When Collin stopped bristling quite as much, Jared softened his voice. "He doesn't have a choice, Collin. He and Cassie are completely tapped, the same way Kim and I would be if both of us weren't working. The tourist season is over, there just aren't any jobs right now. This is the best Paul can do, and you worrying about him leaving won't help."

"So I'm supposed to just pretend it's not a bad fucking idea to leave Cassie all alone?" Collin growled back, and Jared shook his head as Collin pushed against authority again. It wasn't just Jared. Collin had been particularly resistant to Quil lately, too, although Quil was too preoccupied with leaving Claire to much care. Jake had been watching it for a while, giving Collin a chance to work it out with his Packmates, but Jack could tell that the Alpha's patience was wearing thin.

"Here he goes again," Leah muttered, sharing a look with Seth. "Anyone else besides me know this shit by heart yet?"

"He's leaving her with _you_, Collin," Jared reminded him coolly, able to hold his own without Jake stepping in and protecting him. "If that's not good enough idea, tell us now and we'll figure out someone who _can_ handle it. I trust Brady to take care of Kim, so if he has to, he can take care of Cassie too."

Brady flushed at that, but a pleased look spread across his features. It was hard to know what Brady was thinking these days, Jake had the young wolf's thoughts blocked for Brady's privacy and ensured it by running patrols with the younger wolf, but it was obvious Brady's confidence in himself had been sorely shaken. What Jack's Packmates didn't seem to get was that Collin's confidence was equally shaken, something that Paul would have noticed if he had been less wrapped up in himself and his Mate. Newly Mated meant that it would be hard for Paul to focus on much else than Cassie, and Jack whined unhappily without thinking about it, drawing attention he hadn't meant to bring to himself. Jake and Seth had been watching the conversation silently, but Jack's inadvertent sound caused both leaders to immediately focus in on him.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't dignified to try to hide one's head from view behind a she-wolf's back, but Leah was the closest thing to hide behind.

"Human, Jack," the Alpha said softly, and Jack had phased and was kneeling in the grass before the order was finished. His nudity didn't bother him, but the Pack's eyes on him did. "You can say what's bothering you, Jack," Jake reassured him, but there was the faintest tone of command in his voice. Collin was still bristling, and Jack's place was to keep his mouth shut, not intercede. He had messed up. _Again_.

"Jack, tell us what's bothering you," Jake commanded, although extremely gently. The Alpha almost never pushed hard, because Jack would obey even the faintest hint of pressure from Jake. Jack _always_ obeyed his Alpha…sometimes it just took him a little longer to find the right way to do it.

"A spear does not always take the hare the first time it is thrown," Jack finally whispered. "But if a spear is only thrown once, the spear will never know it is a match for the hare, as fast and as strong. A spear unbroken can be cast again and again and can take many hares, as many as are needed. A broken spear can still be mended and take the hare. But the spear that lies still, afraid to be thrown, will remain what it always was, a stick."

He paused and then met Collin's eyes only briefly before lowering them submissively. "I have lived the life of a stick, brother, but our Alpha has asked of more of me, and I doubt he will accept less from you."

Collin flushed, looked like he was going to get mad, but then he clamped down on his temper. The young wolf ran a hand through his hair. "I hate it when Papa wolf's always right," he muttered, but then he nodded through clenched teeth. "Point made, Jack. No wussy bitches allowed in the Pack."

That actually hadn't been the point Jack was trying to make, and he cringed at the misunderstanding, but Seth was already smoothing that comment over, giving Collin a rare annoyed look. "What Collin was _trying_ to say, Jack, is that Paul was right in saying we should listen to you," the Beta explained, keeping his eyes on Collin. "And Collin, what Jack was trying to say was that what happened in Missoula doesn't mean you can't keep Cassie safe. Collin, she would be _dead_ if it wasn't for you."

"And you _both_ would be dead if it wasn't for Jack," Leah felt like mentioning, her tone protective as she backed up her Packmate. "So stop being a shit to him and everyone else, pup." Jack started to cringe even more, but Collin didn't get angrier. Instead he let out a tired sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Collin admitted, slumping and going back to his normal more laid back self. Jack wondered how many in the Pack realized the reason was because Jack had his head turned enough to show Collin his throat in apology. "Sorry, Jack. I just…I'm just worried about it. And you're not a stick, dude, so no more of that."

Jack nodded and Collin seemed satisfied, which was good enough for Jack, but Seth and Jake were both sharing a look. Something passed in between them, and then Jake cleared his throat. "Okay," the Alpha said in a commanding voice. "Business of the week. And I'm saying week because I'm changing this back to every Friday morning. I know, I know, that sucks, but there's reason. We're going to be three wolves short here in a couple days. Jared, Quil, and Paul will be gone for about two weeks, back again for a couple days, and then they'll be gone for a couple months. Having Jack helps, but we'll be short and we need to keep patrols up. The world isn't as friendly as we thought."

"No shit," Quil muttered, shaking his head. "Anyone else feel like La Push has become a big ass target recently?"

Jack shifted, once more drawing attention, and Seth nodded at him to say what was on his mind. "They cannot attack our Pack's lands," Jack said softly. "If they could have, the Calgary Alpha would have long ago. They have been driven from our lands by the Alpha of our people and cannot return, as I cannot return. Those that would kill you where we stand could not do the same on that side of the line."

"They can't come here unless I specifically invite them?" Jake questioned, his eyes narrowed intently, and Jack tried to make sure he was saying what was correct.

"…As far as I know, Alpha," Jack finally said. "What is a source of jealousy and danger also protects you. There are many Packs, but only La Push is truly Tlokwali, those truly of the wolf. You have what we do not, and the ancestors will side with you. They cannot cross into your territory, Alpha."

Seth and Jake shared another look. "Jack?" Jake asked gently. "Are you sure that tradition is as binding as that? I don't want to base our Pack's safety on what they _should_ do." Jack didn't know, so he merely bowed his head and the Alpha moved on. "Hopefully Jack is right. That would make things easier on us, but no chances. Keep extra vigilant, and keep close to the rez unless we decide otherwise. And please Leah. _Please_ no more side trips."

Leah blinked innocently and noticed a baby raccoon hiding in the bushes. Huh, look at that. Baby raccoon.

"The Cullens have been getting pretty amped up by this vamp, Neel," Jake continued, ignoring her innocence. "Carlisle backed off because of Ness breaking the border two weeks ago, but he called me up last night. Alice saw the vamp headed this way and then he disappeared, so they think it's because he breaks the border. She couldn't tell when, just that it wasn't raining."

"Helpful," Sam grunted and Leah winked at him.

"Betcha I get him first," she challenged, and Sam briefly grinned at her.

"You're not actually betting money, are you Lee-lee?" he countered, and Leah stuck her tongue out at him playfully. Someone threw a rock at Quil while everyone else was distracted, and the wolf cursed and blinked when it hit him between the eyes. Seth whistled cheerfully, not looking at anyone in particular, and Jake rubbed the bridge of his nose like he was developing a headache.

"I'll buy a damn burger for whoever gets the thing," Jake sighed. "Just be careful, he's supposedly dangerous, and kill him sooner rather than later. Carlisle's getting to be pushy for us to hold up our side of the treaty. I've never seen old man vamp so strung out about anything like this-" Jake looked like he was going to say something more, but when his sentence never came, Embry's head snapped up. Jake then laughed out loud, a huge grin spreading across his mouth. "Hey Emb? Samantha just ate it in the dojo." This seemed to amuse him greatly.

"Is she okay?" Embry asked worriedly, his face scrunching up in concern. "I _told_ her to take it easy this morning."

Jake snickered, saying, "And you actually thought she'd do it? Although by her level of embarrassment at the moment, I think it wasn't working out. Don't be surprised if you come back to her flattened on the ground from mopping or something. She's _fine_, Emb, it just distracted me."

"Bunny Lop's been extra clumsy lately, you better not have knocked her up, Embry," Seth teased playfully, to which Jake shuddered and Embry actually managed to turn about as red as a Quileute tomato. Quil was still rubbing between his eyes, and Collin was starting to look a little bored. Brady's face was expressionless.

Jared leaned into Sam and muttered, "Do you know how much hell Kim will give me if anyone in the Pack gets pregnant before her? She's been treating Cassie like shit because she's convinced Cass will beat her to it. She'll hit the roof if Sims beats them both."

"Emily told me they had been fighting," Sam murmured back, frowning. "I don't think Paul knows, though, Cassie's pretty good about hiding things from him when she wants to. Em's stuck in the middle and is avoiding both of them." There was definite disapproval in Sam's voice, and Jared ducked his head a little.

"I'll talk to her, Sam," Jared said apologetically, his voice still quiet. "It's not just the baby thing, it's the marriage thing too. Kim heard Cassie and Emily talking about it, and she's got it in her head that you and Em are finally gonna-"

"Hey Jack," Leah said loudly, drawing the ancient wolf's attention. She winked at him as she twisted his way. "Since you're already dressed for a party and these guys are losing focus, wanna go earn me some more waffles? You know, free will fucking and all, no magically forced relationships necessary to ride this train."

The comment was unlike her, but she had only just been in heat her third time ever a couple weeks ago, and the territorialism was to be expected. In Jack's old Pack, she still would have been kept away for another week or two from other females for safety, and all Jack had seen from her was the occasional eye roll and a comment or two. Considering how young she was, and that her Alpha was too young to help her much, Leah's control was impressive. So impressive that Jack had been nearly stunned at her potential, the way he had been stunned at Jake's. The females had always held their own rankings between themselves, but even at her age, Leah would have been near the top. She was a gift that he wasn't sure his Pack understood that they had, her presence alone tying the Pack together tighter, and a tighter Pack was a stronger Pack.

In a different world, a world long since passed, her options wouldn't have been nearly so constricted, but things being as they were, she dealt with her lot with grace. Mostly likely because she had never known any different. Jack had always found the she-wolves appealing, most high ranked wolves did, and Jack had indulged them even while his Alpha's control helped them maintain their own controls. Even now, the ancient wolf was perfectly content earning his Pack's she-wolf as many waffles as she wished, but he was relatively certain that the Alpha, the Beta, the Pack's previous Alpha, and oddly enough Quil were all going to try and eat him if he agreed. Their flat stares certainly were saying as much, and someone that might have been Seth cracked his knuckles. So Jack smiled at Leah and ducked his head shyly.

"The pursuit of waffles is dangerous," Jack murmured. "But the hunt is worthwhile. I am unafraid."

Leah grinned at him and opened her mouth to say something, something probably very suggestive if her body language was correct, but she was cut off by a cough from the fourth. Embry's eyes were sparkling in amusement, but Seth looked completely grossed out and had put his fingers in his ears, and Jake's face was pained.

"As the meeting abruptly comes to an end," the Alpha stated in a slightly rough and rather loud voice. "New order, all latter waffle conversations will be held out of both my and Seth's hearing. Embry has a new patrol schedule, everyone find him later and get it. Emb, please go get my imprint off the floor. Whatever she did, she did it a second time."

Embry scuttled off to do just that, and Seth chuckled, rounding up Collin and Brady and herding them back in the direction of the school. Seth turned around and began walking backwards, making a small yipping noise that Jack instinctively understood was meant for him. Jack's attention was instantly focused on the Beta, who grinned at him.

"Hey, Jack! Don't let Leah distract you, man. We're still fishing after school, right?"

Jack bowed his head in acquiescence, but was pleased that the Beta had not forgotten and he was sure that it showed in his face. Seth grinned even bigger, then turned and went back to driving the whining younger wolves off towards their education filled day. Sam and Jared slipped off to patrol, once more deep in conversation. Jake gave Leah a searching look, but walked over and squeezed Jack's shoulder before heading off with the waiting and soon to be patrolling Quil, leaving Leah and Jack alone. The pleasure of the Alpha's attention, even if just for a moment, filled Jack with contentment. Leah however snorted under her breath and stuck her tongue out at the retreating Alpha's backside just because she could. Jack watched Leah watch the Alpha go, and she had the grace to look embarrassed when she caught him catching her.

"Sorry," Leah said with a tiny grin, "Not really sure where that came from. It bugs me when I have to drag my ass out of bed to come to a meeting and all they do is talk about their imprints." Jack's lips curved a little more when she muttered under her breath, "Even Jake's started doing it. And he wonders why my ass doesn't want any part of him anymore." They both knew by her tone alone that her last statement was less than true. The ancient wolf shifted to a more relaxed position, wishing he had a pair of pants, or at least his breechclout. He was pretty sure that the she-wolf had been sneaking peaks during the meeting.

"The females of our kind are not inclined to share," Jack told her kindly. "And the attraction to the Alpha for them is tangible. There is nothing to apologize for."

"I don't have a _tangible attraction_ to him," Leah disagreed, flushing a little. "It's just…Jake's just…"

The ancient wolf waited for her to finish, but when she didn't, he gently finished for her. "He is the Alpha, Leah. The draw is on both sides." Leah frowned, and Jack forced past the barriers in his mind that made it so hard to remember how things used to be. Generalities he could do, but specifics were harder, but he tried, pushed past the angry mutters of the ancestors in his head to find the words she needed to hear from him.

"My Alpha, he had six she-wolves at the height of his Pack, although we lost one to a Cold One, and another to the heartsickness that was losing the first," Jack said softly, long buried grief welling up in him. That had been a bad day for him, for his Alpha, for them all. "My Alpha was tied to them, each differently, each as strongly."

"That sounds like one big ass chick fight in the making," Leah joked, although her eyes were searching his for answers. Answers that even Jack could not have told her. The females had always kept their secrets to themselves, guarded by the Alphas in their privacy. Much of what she needed, Jack simply did not know. He bowed his head apologetically.

"It was not, not often anyways," Jack murmured above the mutters. "Except when in heat, when the males separated them for their own safeties, they kept order amongst themselves as they chose. I was never a she-wolf, and was never invited to know how or why."

Leah chuckled at that, but his answers, as brief as they were, seemed to have helped her. Under Jake's order, she could not ask him more than he was comfortable offering of his own accord, but Leah seemed content. When she stood up, Leah gave Jack a smile as she stretched. "Well, I suppose that being mysterious has its good points, huh? No offense, but the whole waffle comment was more to embarrass the guys than anything else, and I want my bed. Can I have a rain check on the sex?"

Jake rose to a crouch, giving Leah a fond look. "Time spent with me once does not lead me to believe time will be spent with me again. I am content, sister."

"Then you'd be the first guy I've ever been with to feel that way," Leah chuckled, teasing him as she stepped back across the line. "Are you sure you were never a she-wolf, Jack?"

He winked at her and stood up. Sometimes it was fun to make even the most bold females blush, although to her credit, Leah just laughed and winked back.

"Point made. And with that interesting image burned into my mind, I'm going to bed. Later, Jack!" She waved over her head and jogged away, and Jack was once more a wolf again before she had disappeared. Shaking his brindled fur, Jack stretched and then dropped to his belly. He stayed there for a long time, inhaling deeply. Pack. He liked his Pack, and he hoped they would grow to like him too. He could smell them all, even the faintest hint of the Third deep in the reservation. Jack liked his Pack but he _really_ liked the Third. He really liked the Third a lot. But none of that mattered nearly as much as the fact that he loved his Alpha. Jack most _definitely_ loved his Alpha. The ancient wolf curled up in a ball, resting his nose on his hip and sighing contentedly.

_Murder_. Yes, he knew. _Betrayer_. Yes, he knew that too. But Jack loved his Alpha, and he had a Pack, and that meant that for right now, the world was good.

Across the reservation, Jacob Black smiled even though he was failing his first period math test, and he murmured so softly only Seth and Samantha could hear, "Yeah man, I love you too."

* * *

The sun wasn't shining today, but that didn't matter to the pair that lay curled up in the bed in the corner of the small cabin. It was growing chillier as summer turned to fall, and the young woman never had been good at staying warm on her own, so she had buried herself as deeply into the bedding as she could. Next to her, the large wolf groaned when she stuck her cold toes between his legs, snuggling in closer and pressing her nose against his chest. She sniffed, a wet little sound, and Paul reached for a small warm body that he was still growing used to being there every time he woke up. It was better like this. Waking up with her was better.

"You're getting sick, aren't you Cass?" Paul rumbled sleepily. He had been up late the precious evening, running a double patrol. He and Quil and Jared were taking as many as they could to compensate for the time they would be gone, and Paul hadn't noticed Cass having a cold then, but to be honest, he'd been so tired that he'd choked down whatever it had been that she'd handed him for dinner and collapsed into bed, grateful Jake had let him out of the meeting and knowing he could sleep in. Paul should have been paying better attention.

His wolf yawned and decided it was good that at least he paid attention to things, and from her place burrowed against Paul's body, Cassie giggled. They didn't talk about the fact that when they were close, sometimes she could tell what his wolf was saying. It was a foreign concept that disturbed Paul a bit, but the benefits were that Paul had never felt more tightly tied to his imprint. He liked it this way, it was better this way. It was good this way.

Cassie sniffed again. That wasn't so good.

"Cass?" Paul blinked and yawned, then rolled over and put his nose in her throat, inhaling deeply. It must have tickled because she made a little squeaking noise, and Paul smiled against her skin.

"M'fine," Cassie replied, her accent thickened with sleep, and Paul felt himself almost start purring in pleasure. He loved her voice. He loved everything about her. She was the biggest fucking pain in his ass he could imagine, but he loved her so much it was ridiculous. So when he sniffed again and caught the faintest scent of heat beneath her coldness, she wasn't cold at all but running a slight fever, Paul growled lightly.

"Damn it Cass," Paul grumbled, tapping her rubber band with his finger before sitting up in bed and giving her a closer inspection. "I told you to stop wandering around naked all the time. Now you're sick again. This is the third time since you've gotten back." She always slept nude, so when she saw him inspecting, so gave a little wiggle for his benefit.

"I always get colds in the fall, Paul," Cassie informed him, unconcerned. "It's my bag, baby."

Paul chuckled and stuck his nose behind her ear where she smelled the absolute best. Well, at least where this half of her smelled the best. "You've been watching too many movies, Cass."

"There's not much else to do," Cassie yawned, wiggled again because she liked to do that sort of thing, and then she sneezed. Paul gave her a disapproving look.

"If you were getting sick, you should have told me," Paul admonished. "I could have taken you to the doctor. If we can't get you an appointment at the clinic before I leave, I'll have to have Collin take you."

"Don't be silly, Paul," Cassie smiled and ran her hands enticingly down his stomach. If Paul didn't know better, he would say that she was trying to distract him. "You worry too much, it's just a runny nose."

"Or maybe I worry an appropriate amount," Paul growled back, and when she realized he was serious, Cassie frowned. Paul didn't need to be Mated to her to understand the spiking scent of worry rolling off of her. Doctors meant insurance or extra cash, neither of which they had.

Cassie had spent her entire life privileged, and even though she wasn't unhappy with being broke now, she had never had to budget before. Three months of chasing her across Europe, plus paying back Jared for covering Paul's rent and now having gone four months jobless had nearly wiped Paul dry. They had some money but not much, and with each failing attempt at finding work, Paul had cut their budget back even more. Cassie had lived nearly as broke while in Europe, but she hadn't been thinking very clearly for most of that time, and now that she was starting to have to face what she had done, money had become a much bigger issue that she had ever thought it would be.

It wasn't materialism that was her problem. Cassie simply hadn't been aware how much of her coping mechanisms were wrapped up in spending money. It wasn't just spending money on herself, but on the people around her too. Her charity work was mostly cashed based, and had been an important part in making herself feel worthwhile. But Cassie was limited now to only buying what was absolutely necessary, like soap and peanut butter, and there simply wasn't anything to give. She tried to volunteer her time, but in being white and of a questionable reputation to be with a "Good boy like Paul", Cassie wasn't particularly welcome in places when she didn't have a hulking wolf behind her shoulder, glaring and making the locals be nice.

Forks would have been more welcoming to her, but she wasn't allowed and even if she had been, the Shaggin' Waggin' had picked a great time to throw a rod in the engine. Jake and Embry were still deciding if the engine was worth saving or if Cassie's pride and joy was stationary until Paul could afford a new engine. Until then she was limited to where she could go to by where she could walk to, and she was walking less and less every day because of her legs. She was in a lot more pain because she was running out of painkillers, and she and Paul were both very much aware that obtaining more would require health insurance they didn't have, money they didn't have, or asking a vampire they didn't want to be beholden to for help. The lack of drugs was showing how much of her life Cassie had covered with painkillers, and now that the shock was wearing off, not once had Paul found Cassie trembling in the bathroom as she fought the desire to pop what painkillers she had left like the candy it had once been.

Paul had only asked once, but Cassie had readily admitted to snorting heroin several times while in Russia, and even though she hadn't shot it intravenously, the fact it had still been heroin had scared him to the point he had left and spent a full day running to calm down. Cassie hadn't apologized, she was an adult and had made a decision independent of Paul in a situation that her drug use had not affected him, only herself. That hadn't made it acceptable, but it was between herself and her, at least according to Cassie, and that was just another thing on the long list of things that Paul and Cassie disagreed about but weren't going to keep fighting over. The point was that like money, her drugs weren't there anymore either. They didn't have the money to waste on alcohol, Cassie's tolerance was very high, and Paul was stressed out enough with being jobless without adding a drunken imprint on top of it. So she didn't drink except in small moderate amounts, and her final drug of choice, alcohol, was pretty much gone too.

Her masses of "friends", her sister, the few but dear people in her life outside of La Push, all gone until Jake felt it was safe enough for Cassie to contact them. She couldn't leave, and considering the fact that Jake had made it clear that Cassie had to be either in or out, Cassie had felt the walls closing in on her. She had been systematically stripped of her coping mechanisms, unhealthy as most of them may have been, at a time when she needed them the most. It had left her…unsure of her place now. Paul knew that Cassie feared deep down that he would change his mind about her, and that she would fail in this new life she was trying to build. She was trying so hard to help him, to find herself, to be worthy in her own eyes, while combating the all too fresh memory of a series of events that she held herself entirely accountable for. And Cassie compensated by fixating on the things she could control in a brand new world that she couldn't control, their money being one of those things.

Cassie could control the money they spent, or what they didn't spend. Being thrifty was her new hobby, and she was happy as a clam cutting coupons and mailing in rebates and going without. But Paul didn't want that for her, he wanted better for her. And he sure as hell didn't want her going without a doctor again, because he had let himself be convinced twice she just had the sniffles and nothing more. She was doing a shit job taking care of herself, and Paul was leaving in only two days. Jared had gotten Paul on one of the many commercial fishing boats up in Alaska, which would be hard work but at least decent money. It was going to suck because after the first run, Paul wasn't on the same boat as Jared and Quil, but that was how the draw of the straws was sometimes. Paul and Quil were both considered greenhorns, and there was only so many greenhorns a captain would take at a time. But Paul would do what he had to do, and if they had to drop some money now so that his scrawny ass imprint didn't get herself pneumonia while he was gone, well, that was just how it was.

"Cassie, there's no fucking way I'm leaving you here sick," Paul said strongly. "The first trip is only a couple weeks, but the second is a lot longer." He could see the stubbornness in her eyes and changed tactics, softening his voice. "Cass, you gotta trust me okay? I know things are hard right now, but I'm going to take care of us. My wolf hates open water, so when I'm up there, I need to be able to focus and not worry more than I always do about you. And I won't be able to do what I have to do unless I know you're not getting sicker."

"We don't have the money, Paul," Cassie told him gently, running a hand through his hair. "And I'll be fine. You need to trust me too, okay?"

Paul frowned and pulled away, sitting up in bed and rubbing his face wearily. He loved the hell out of her, but when it came to Paul trusting Cassie…well, not so much. "Cass, you know I love you right?"

She nodded, although her eyes were narrowing.

"Then please take this the way it is meant," Paul stated tiredly, stress making him say what he would normally keep to himself. "I fucking adore you, but as far as I'm concerned, you have the worst judgment of anyone I have ever met, especially when it comes to yourself and what you can handle. And before you start yelling at me in Russian and throwing shit again, I have a right to think this way. So please, just work with me here."

His imprint drew herself up, opened her mouth, and then clamped it again. Her hazel eyes were flashing, but then suddenly the heat was gone, as fast as it had come. What was left was the same girl he found in Germany, worn and worried, beaten down and-and he had just beaten her down even more. Dammit.

"Cassie, I didn't mean-"

"You've made your point, Paul," Cassie said quietly, interrupting him. "And I'm very aware that trust is earned and not given freely. But please don't apologize for saying exactly what you felt. And please take _this_ the way it is meant. If you truly think of me as a child who can't take care of herself and make a decision without your guidance, then you probably don't have any business having sex with me every single night."

"I don't think of you as a child, Cass," Paul growled, frustrated. "I just…damn baby, I just want to make things better."

"By making sure I don't make them any worse," she replied simply, and while there wasn't any anger in her statement, it did ring with the brutal truth. He knew that made her sad, deeply sad, and without thinking Paul reached for her, hauling her upright and into his arms.

"I _want_ to trust in you, Cassie," Paul promised, burying his face in her neck and sighing heavily. "I'm _trying_, but you burned me pretty damn bad. Trust goes two ways, and you don't trust me to know what's best any more than I trust you to know the same. I think that maybe you never trusted me to begin with."

There was truth in his words too, and Paul's tiny imprint made a soft noise in her throat as her arms wrapped around his neck. Paul hauled her in closer and held her tight.

"Cass, you get the fact that I'm in this for good, right? That there's no turning back for me?" Paul asked, and she nodded against his shoulder. "Then you have to understand that there a big nasty world out there that I don't trust anywhere near you, and I'm leaving you when I have _never_ needed to be with you more. Not because of you, but because of me. I need this time with you to get past everything, but it's time we don't have and I hate that. But I need to keep us from going hungry, Cassie. It's not ideal, but it's the best I can do right now. I'm so worried about you that I can't think straight anymore, and…I'm just pretty stressed out right now, Cass. I just need you to have some faith in me. I need you to help make this easier on me, to help me worry less. I'll figure out the money, just please trust me to know what's best right now."

"Loving someone isn't a good enough reason to need to control them, Paul," Cassie said quietly and Paul flinched.

She thought he was trying to control her. Hell, maybe he was, maybe she needed someone to control her until she figured out how not to live out of control. But that wasn't what she wanted, and that wasn't who Paul wanted to be, and it made him equally angry with himself as it did with her. Angry wolves moved away from the imprints, it had been grilled into him from Sam since the very first day Paul had phased, so getting up and walking away from her was instinctive. So was his comment.

"You know what the shit of it is, Cassie? You had your entire adult life full of people fucking with you, but I have _never_ done anything to deserve your lack of trust," Paul countered back as he walked to the kitchen, his words more harsh than he had meant them to be. "I didn't cause your problems, and you wouldn't let me save you from them either. So after the fact there's not a whole lot I can do but to be there for you. Which is really fucking hard when you won't even _talk_ to me about anything that upsets you anymore. You won't talk to me, you won't talk to Collin, you won't talk to Jake…Hell, I even asked _Jack_ to come talk to you as a last ditch effort and you refused. Once again everyone but you is out of the loop. Trust me, if I can't even get you to tell me why you spend half the night crying every time you think I'm asleep, I doubt I'm _controlling_ you."

Not only was he not controlling her, he was leaving her like that. Collin was right. Money or not, this was a bad fucking idea. Snarling, Paul went to the fridge. He had only meant to get a can of soda, but he had opened the fridge door too hard and now Paul had the rest of the sodas rolling around on the ground and Cass's mini candy bar stash dumped on the ground. Cursing, Paul bent to grab them up and only ended up knocking his elbow into the open door and what was left of their gallon of milk hit the ground too, helpfully busting open and spilling a few cups of old milk onto the floor. Paul wasn't sure what pissed him off more, that he was big and stupid and clumsy enough to have knocked it all down, that Cass hadn't budgeted more milk into the grocery money until next week, or that his imprint and soon to be wife was drinking old fucking milk.

To be honest, Paul almost ripped the damn refrigerator door off the rest of it at that point. It was a little hand on his shoulder that stopped him.

Cassie was still naked, she spent way too much time wandering around like that. Paul hated it because even though she was sexy like that, it also reminded him constantly of how little she was, how frail. It made him aggressive and territorial and bad tempered. More than normal. He needed to take care of her now because he hadn't before and if she would just fucking stop fighting him all the time…

Paul's imprint knelt down on the ground next to him, knees in milk, and she hugged him tightly. Paul initially resisted, but then softened. Sometimes he wasn't even sure what he was so angry about anymore, and holding his imprint, his Mate, made it better. It made no sense that she could make him so angry, but then touch and it make the world stop spinning uncontrollably. He was just stressed, more stressed then he could ever remember being. Paul was a planner, took care of things, and he felt like he was scrambling to keep up now with the pressures of real life on top of a supernatural one.

"Sorry," he muttered, resting his forehead against her shoulder. "Sorry, I know I'm being rude and mean."

"You're worried, Paul, and you're trying too hard," Cassie said softly. He didn't reply so after a moment, Cassie picked up a milk covered mini Kit Kat, which Paul had been favoring of her stash, and she dried it off as best she could before opening it and breaking it in half.

"Here's chocolate me," she told him, lifting up the smaller half. "And here's chocolate you." Cassie took a bite of chocolate her and his as well, showing him the partial halves and how they didn't fit together anymore at the ragged ends. "Chocolate me is kind of not all me right now, and chocolate you isn't either. But I'm still less chocolate than you are, so it makes chocolate you feel like you have to fill in the gaps to make everything whole again," she told him gently. Then Cassie gave Paul a pretty smile. "But you're only so much chocolate, Paul, and so am I. Chocolate doesn't magically reproduce itself and fix everything. Although wouldn't it be really nice if it could? Then we could call you Paully Wonka and I could run your chocolate factory and when the oompa lumpas go on strike, I can fill in for them. Neat, huh?"

Paul stared at her, found a thousand different things to tell her how ridiculous that was, but she was smiling at him hopefully, and Paul couldn't help but smirk back. He snagged chocolate Cassie from her fingertips and ate her all up. Then he stole chocolate Paul as she yelped and tried to protect his chocolate self, and did the same. "You're right, Cass," Paul chuckled. "Chocolate _doesn't_ fix everything. You need a better analogy."

"You ate the chocolate Paul," Cassie said sadly.

"The real one is better," Paul reminded her. She didn't look convinced so he made sure to prove it was true. After all, she was already naked, and eating Cassie's chocolate was a very cruel thing to do to her.

The milk ended up drying on them stickily, so after a decent amount of convincing, Paul let himself be convinced into a shower. For the moment the water was hot, so after a fair bit of teasing and soaping, Cassie stood under the water, eyes closed and face upturned as she leaned against his stronger form. She sometimes took several showers a day, and Paul knew that it wasn't him she was trying to find a way of scraping off her skin. As the small shower filled his steam, Cassie sighed and opened her eyes, turning her face sideways so that she was staring at the tiled wall. She traced a little heart in the condensation, Paul's name and hers inside, and then she leaned into him harder.

"I don't talk about it because it hurts you more to know than it hurts you to not talk," Cassie finally whispered as Paul ran a hand up and down her soapy hip. "And I do trust you, Paul. I'm just so used to fighting for control, it seems weak to just give you that power over me."

Paul thought about what she had said, and then he dropped his chin so that it rested on her the top of her head, his other arm beneath her breasts and holding her close. "Cassie, you're forgetting something," he rumbled quietly.

"Hmm? What's that?"

"You're forgetting that you've got power over me too," he reminded her. "You always have. I never fought it, but I tried to minimize it at first because it frightened me. But finally I let the imprint happen, let us happen, and I'm better for it. Letting you have that power over me wasn't easy, and I won't lie and say you didn't hurt me with it, but I know I hurt you too. And in the end I belong to you as much as you belong to me."

"Yeah?" She asked, sounding a little worried, and Paul turned her in his arms.

"Yeah, Cass. Me and you, we're tied together now, I think maybe more than we realize."

"Paul? Why are you so scared of leaving?"

Because what if when he came back, she was gone? What if he let her out of his sight again, and this time, he never caught up to her? What if his whole fucking world left him behind because he didn't matter enough to stay for? A thousand what ifs that he worried about all the time and wasn't ready to tell her yet.

"…Because I love you, Cassie."

Her soapy hip against his leg, her breasts against his abdomen, his hands everywhere because these days he was always at a loss on how to fix things, fix her, fix him, fix everything. She held him tighter, even if he didn't feel it, because she understood him better than he knew.

"I love you too."

* * *

Fishing was not what it once had been. The bright red pole and the black tackle box covered in stickers, combined with the Beta's cheerful chatting and aggressive enthusiasm as he carried his empty bucket along was sure to warn any fish in the area that they were coming.

Jack had known hunting waffles in Seth's vicinity would be difficult from now on. It never occurred to him that it would carry over to other types of game.

"You know, I used to fish with my father," Seth told Jack happily as the two trekked through the woods outside of Hoquiam, the Beta padding silently at Jack's heels. At least the Beta thought he was padding silently at Jack's heels. One of these days Jack was going to have to teach his Pack to walk as they should, although he had to admit it amused him at how sneaky they felt they were when they stomped and thumped about. Rico often told Jack that his new Pack sounded like wild hogs crashing about blindly through the brush, and the vampire believed that they were determined to give any poor, hardworking, honest, and respectable vampires that lived in the area migraines.

Rico often feigned migraines. Rico often feigned lots of things.

The Beta stepped on a twig and Jack was proud he didn't cringe, after all it wasn't the Beta's fault. Embarrassing yes, but not the young wolf's fault. Seth didn't seem to be noticing the difference, but he was happily whistling as they trekked. It was a pleasant catchy tune that Jack had heard before, although he wasn't sure why the Beta would wish that he was a food product of any sort, and didn't think the Beta needed to worry about lack of affection. He was loved by his Pack whether he was a hotdog or not.

"Although if I had known that Dad wasn't going to be around much longer, I would have paid closer attention to what he was telling me," Seth admitted, only the tiniest bit of regret in his tone. "I like going fishing when I can. It reminds me of him and the good days, you know?"

Jack nodded silently in understanding, his feet following a new path from the last time he had fished here. He had lived a long time in a single place, but even time hadn't taken away the constant sense of needing to not fall into easy patterns. A rogue wolf was alone and at risk, especially when bordered by another Pack or multiple Packs. What was left of his wolf knew that they were always in danger and had to be vigilant and careful.

The thought, paired with Seth's scent in Jack's nostrils, made him stop dead in his tracks. If Seth hadn't been a wolf, he might have run into Jack, but instead he shifted sideways reflexively, shoulder brushing the seal skin bundle that Jack carried over his back.

They weren't far from where Jack and Rico lived, where a small tributary had been feeding the Hoquiam river since the time that Jack had come to these lands to stay. A single wolf in the wild could live well in the summer and early fall off the salmon runs here, and when Seth had asked Jack to find a place for them to fish, it had seemed an appropriate place. Jack had felt that the young Beta was testing him, seeing how close Jack was willing to drift towards their ancestral homelands, which no doubt had better fishing this time of year, but Jack was fond of his Beta and fond of this spot and felt the need to show his Packmate something that was important to him.

Seth hadn't protested, although Jack had chuckled at the wide floppy hat and bright red flannel shirt that the Beta had insisted on wearing, the kind most often found on old men floating about calm lakes with bored expressions. For Jack there was nothing boring about fishing, and it seemed odd to him that the Beta should choose something to wear that would alert their food to their presence, but the Beta was the Beta and therefore probably knew something that the lowest ranking wolf in the Pack didn't. Betas usually were clever like that. And being the clever Beta that Seth was, he waited patiently for Jack to finish thinking about what he was thinking about.

Jack was currently thinking about the fact that he was no longer a lone wolf, and he was under the protection of a Pack, a very strong Pack, and if he wanted to follow the same path he had taken the last time he had fished, then he could. Jack had been relying on his Alpha too much, but the thought made him instinctively reach out for Jake through the ties that were Pack, to press against that presence in his soul affectionately instead of pulling at it for balance, and a smile slipped over his face when the feeling of the Alpha's curiosity rolled over him. Jack knew he was tied tightly to his Alpha, more so than most of the other wolves in his Pack, but it wasn't anything special about Jack. An Alpha was bound to all of his wolves equally, it was only how those wolves chose to bind themselves back that made such a difference in their contact with him and with each other. The Beta and the Third were more inclined to stay closely linked with their Alpha and with each other, but there was a time when every wolf in Jack's old Pack had been tied as tightly to their Alpha as Seth was to Jake. Jack and his oldest friend had been tied even more tightly still.

A young Pack with a young Alpha took time to learn to be as they should, took time to grow and to mature as men and wolves, but Jack couldn't help needing that contact. It was like a comforting hand on his back, or better yet, on his heart. The feeling warmed Jack, and he leaned on that warm feeling just a moment before pulling away. Rico liked to say that there was magic in the world, that it was magic that made the vampires, that bonded the wolves together, that created the creatures of the light and the dark, the day and the night. Rico always said that it was silly the Packs and the vampires enjoyed killing each other so much. They were both of darkness, of the night, and would be best allied together. Jack had never agreed or disagreed, because he had learned a long time ago that what he thought was mostly distorted and dangerous and wrong. But he felt the life blood of his people flowing through his veins, and the strength of his Pack wrapping around his bones, strengthening him with every step he took, and it felt nothing like darkness to Jack.

Jack and Rico never had agreed when it came to the darkness of heart and the darkness of mind. But Pack wasn't darkness. It was good. And it was Jack's.

"Jack?" Seth said quietly, although a quick glance at the younger wolf told Jack that the Beta was pleased. "You okay, man?" Seth asked, his own grin forming. "You look like the cat that got into the cream."

"The cream should have been better guarded," Jack murmured, politely averting his eyes so not to read too much of the Beta's thoughts from body language even as he teased his Beta lightly. "The cat likes the cream and is not inclined to be run off."

"You and me both," Seth chuckled as Jack continued his trek towards the tributary. They could hear the water burbling and gushing not too far away, close enough that the scent of water and moss and a touch of brine hit their noses. There were fish to be had here today, should they be skilled enough to catch them. Seth gave Jack a smile and hopped up on a rock just because he could. "Life's good in Jake's Pack, huh? Yeah, we've made a couple pretty major mistakes the last year or so, but all in all, I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"There was a time when it wasn't an option," Jack said softly as he led his Beta through the dense ground cover, carefully sidestepping a broken piece of glass left from someone carelessly tossing a bottle last week. Jack had thought he had gathered all the shards but apparently not. He bent and retrieved the dark brown glass and held it up to the light, tilting it back and forth. "One was either Pack or one was not," Jack murmured, and then he opened his mouth but felt it was safer to shut it again.

The Beta's presence always quieted the voices in Jack's head, but they didn't like him thinking of the past, and pushed at him the way that he himself had leaned on the Alpha. A hand on his heart, only squeezing, hurting, twisting, and it was easier to not think. Instead he passed the piece of glass to his Beta, pressing the sharpness into Seth's palm. Seth looked at it, then looked at Jack, and Jack could see the younger wolf trying to understand. Most people didn't, and Jack didn't blame them, so it was with surprise that Jack saw Seth get it.

"But the Packs shattered," the Beta stated, "Broken pieces that should have stayed a whole."

"That which is weak only becomes weaker," Jack replied in Quileute, and Seth pressed his thumb in the center of the piece and it shattered further into tiny bits of glass that couldn't be put back together again. Then the Beta smiled again and closed his fist, grinding what was left into dust before he brushed off his hand on his jeans.

"Good thing people aren't glass, huh?" Seth commented jovially, bumping his shoulder into Jack's. "Takes more than getting tossed to break us. Me, I'm thinking I'm one of those awesome bendy plastic thingies that will always snap back into place. Like Stretch Armstrong. He was really cool."

Jack wasn't sure who Stretch Armstrong was, so he said nothing, but he did allow his Beta's words to roll over him for later consideration as he knelt down on the damp soil, taking the seal skin roll off of his back. It was better to ready their fishing gear where the salmon could not see, because they had been known to leap from the waters with the intent of spying such as Jack and his Beta. The brave that boldly fished was the brave that humbly begged another for his supper that night should his family go without. Plus, considering the Beta's choice of attire, they were working at a disadvantage already.

It had rained earlier that day but had stopped, leaving a soft rolling mist through the woods, and Jack had always felt that the spirits were closer in times like these, their presence hidden in the mists that settled about the world, letting them watch unseen but all seeing. There were both good and evil spirits in the world, and Jack offered a quiet prayer in his native tongue, and also added a respectful murmur to those that had been the Hoh tribe, in case it was not his own people's spirits that watched this place. Seth listened and raised an eyebrow but said nothing, instead yawning and dropping down to the ground next to Jack, sticking his things off to the side as he relaxed. The Beta's lazy contentment was in contrast to the solemnity of the surroundings, and not for the first time Jack wondered if his new Pack were so blind to the world, that his people had become so blind to the world, or if the world had changed so much that it was Jack who had become blind.

"So what's that?" Seth asked curiously as Jack carefully removed the cedar gig spear he had been carving for this trip, the reason why he had asked the Beta to delay their fishing until he could be ready. It was a several foot long solid piece of cedar, three pronged and rubbed with resins to make it stronger, with careful etchings along the handle and prongs. The etchings told of the salmon, and his life in the freshwater streams. It told of his journey to the great salt water oceans, and his loneliness that drove him back to the place of his birth, to spawn and then to die. The etchings told of the gratitude of the one that fed upon the salmon, and the salmon's willingness to allow himself to fill the belly of the one clever enough to catch him. On a whim, Jack had added a story on the last prong, a story of a fish that loved a fishhook like a brother, even as the fishhook took its life and its dreams, the fish held on, unwilling to give up hope.

Jack had almost shaved that story off and started over, but his Beta had been growing impatient these last few days and wanted to fish, and Jack had left his carvings as they were.

"In these times it is called a gig," Jack instructed in his softly accented voice as he pulled out a length of soft nylon rope, well used and well cared for. He worked on fastening the rope to the end of the spear, keeping his motions slow and precise. "Most that you would find now are metal, but it is better to use that which those-with-a-spirit, the great trees, so willingly provide for us. A long straight branch is only left rarely, and should be treated with the honor in which it is given."

Jack had finished tying the rope securely, and then he calmly went about un-tying it with the same slow motions, allowing the younger wolf to watch each hand movement as it was done. "The rope is so that we can cast from higher up the river bank. It is deep where the fishing is the best, so it is better to have a way of retrieving one's gig." Then he re-coiled the rope and offered both the rope and the gig to his Beta. It was a sign of respect that he was pretty sure was lost on the youth, who had no way of knowing that a brave's gig was for him alone.

Back when Jack was just a child learning at his father's hip to fish, he had watched his father carve for hours before attempting to carve his own gig, not realizing at the time that his father was only making a new one for Jack to be able to watch. A brave's handcrafted tools were a deeply personal thing, so each was required to make their own when they were old enough. It was said that in the shaping of a tool, a piece of both the spirit of the crafted and the spirit of the crafter resided in the piece created. Only in the rarest of occasions were such pieces passed from one's hands to another, traded for something very valuable, or gifted as the greatest honor. Jack's own father had only allowed Jack to hold his father's things once before the other wolf had been culled. After the culling, his father's things had been gifted to his father's Beta and most dear friend, and the Beta's things lost as he had slipped away from the world in grief. It had not upset Jack at the time that he was forgotten. It was the way of his people that a man should to carve his own path, and not rest easy, beholden to that which was left him by another.

Things had changed, Jack knew. So many things had changed, old friend...

His dead Alpha thought that change wasn't to be feared. If one stayed in the slowly flowing river, afraid to leave that which one knew, one would never know that where the river ends, the great oceans began. Jack privately thought that if one was content with the river, one didn't need the ocean, but that had always been what separated himself and-

"I'm not doing this right, am I?" Seth muttered, having tried three times to secure the rope to the gig. Jack suggested through his body language as politely as possible that perhaps the Beta should return the tool. It took a couple repetitions of the suggestion, but Seth then untied his knot and re-coiled the rope, passing both back. So not to embarrass his Beta, Jack kept his eyes on his lap as he began again, slowly tying the knot and making sure that each motion was easy for Seth to see. As Jack worked, Seth leaned forward.

"Isn't this kind of a hard way to fish?" Seth asked curiously. "We don't need to _spear_ the fish, Jack. Part of the fun is to sit back and let the fish come to you. Maybe drink a beer, swap some tales, talk about the ladies…"

"Are you not hungry, Beta?" Jack wondered, untying the knot and once more retying it. "Is that not why we're fishing?"

"Naw, I'm cool," Seth grinned lazily. "Don't get me wrong, a good fish fry tonight sounds great, but you don't always have to fish to _eat_, man. You can do it just for fun."

Jack was silent as he tried his very best not to be bothered by that statement. There was a time that he would have dressed down a younger wolf for saying such a thing, but that time had long since passed. It was not Jack's place to approve or disapprove of his leaders' actions, and it always lingered in the back of Jack's mind when he was with his Beta what had happened with his last one. That Seth wished to spend any time with him at all was baffling to Jack, and he wondered often if it was to watch Jack and protect their Alpha from Jack's…faults. But all he ever had found from the younger wolf was acceptance, if not a strong amount of curiosity.

Jack would keep his mouth shut for another thousand years of living to just be accepted by Pack again. It was not his place to disapprove.

"I said something wrong, didn't I?" Seth asked curiously. There was no acceptable answer to that, but Jack felt as if he should give one. He didn't know what to say, so he merely dipped his head lower and tilted it to the side submissively, apologetically. The Beta sighed and leaned over, gently grasping Jack by the ear and tugging his head back upright. Then he bumped his knuckles under Jack's jaw, making the ancient wolf raise his eyes. Giving him back his pride. Giving him room to speak.

Still, it was not Jack's place to judge, even if he did wish to explain. "It is not a question of right and wrong, Beta," Jack said quietly. Pausing momentarily in his demonstration, he tried to decide how to say this. "The world has changed from the world I used to know. There are many people now, with many bellies that need filling, more than one river can provide. But when there was only a man and his family to feed, it was considered a disrespect to take from the salmon more than a man needed. You take for yourself what could have filled the belly of the bear, or the eagle, or your brother and his family."

Jack paused, pursed his lips, and began retying and untying, picking up speed. "Does the salmon love his life less because he is smaller, younger, slower than us? Does he not know the joys of swimming as we too swim, and breathing as we too breathe, and seeing that which lies around him as we too see it? The hawk will catch the fish when it is hungry and feel no remorse because it is hungry, as the fish will swallow a smaller one because it too is hungry. Both the hawk and the fish and the brave want to live. All of us will one day die. Our bodies will be nothing more, and the earth will take us and use us to feed another. There is nothing wrong with this, to eat, to take life as it is needed, but to break the cycle, to take what is unnecessary simply because one can...this is not the way our people used to live."

The ancient wolf's eyes grew hard, and his dead Alpha understood this frustration, shared it, even as the dead Alpha curled up and wished for a fish of his own to eat. "This is not Kwòlíyoť, not Quileute ways," Jack said harshly. "This is the way of the Hókwať, the white people who have taken this land from all of us and made it their own. Our ways are often lost beneath the…convenience of theirs, but those who are Tlokwali must remember the old ways, even if you choose not to follow them. When even the Tlokwali do not remember, then thousands of years of our people and their stories will be lost. We will be fish in a net, one of many, our significance gone and our lives meaningless except for the fact that we are simply one more in the net to be eaten."

Seth had been listening quietly, but as Jack fell into silence, feeling the murmur of the voices rise in his thoughts and echo the ancestors' unhappiness at the loss of their ways, the Beta leaned forward. "We lost a lot when Tupkuk's Alpha destroyed the written records about the Pack," Seth said intently, his eyes desperately hopeful. "We know virtually nothing of who we were, what we even are. There are things about the wolves, about the Tlokwali that only you of our Pack know, Jack. Things Jake would give _anything_ to know. You are Tlokwali-"

"I am _not_, Beta," Jack said as firmly as he could, even though his head was once again tilted apologetically and that firmness came out shaky and uncertain. "I am no longer Tlokwali, one that is truly of the wolf, and I will never be again. I am…"

_A_ _traitor_. _A_ _murderer_. _A_ _betrayer_.

Jack felt the push against his sanity, cringed and prepared himself for an onslaught that never came. The living Alpha had been lingering, had felt him start to fall apart, had caught him in time because Jake was getting better at knowing when to grab him and hold him steady. The dead Alpha still wanted a fish, but was growling softly, unhappily, holding the voices at bay. The Beta's hand had found the back of his neck, and Jack shivered at the contact before relaxing underneath it. He always had liked the number three, and three kept him where he was, who he was, and Jack was grateful. So damned grateful.

"A whipped dog," Seth muttered angrily. Jack risked a quick glance up at his Beta, smelling the annoyance even as he heard it on the young wolf's tongue. "That's what you remind me of, Jack, someone who's been beaten over and over again."

His apology came out more of a whine, he had angered the Beta, and Seth sighed. "Jack, it's _okay_. It's _okay_, man. Damn…this is my fault. There's a reason Jake doesn't want us pushing you for information, and I know Paul already skirted that order two weeks ago. It's just hard not to. We're working blind here, and the more we know, the more we can help each other."

Jack dipped his head again, wishing he knew the right thing to say, but as he was so often, he was at a loss. Seth's hand dropped away and he sighed, rolling his eyes. "For the record, Jake just reamed me for this. I'm supposed to tell you that I'm a dick, and that Jake's making me your bitch for the next couple hours. Sorry, Jack, I shouldn't have said anything."

"You are Beta," Jack replied, because for him that was enough, there was no need for apologies. Seth looked rather unhappy though, and it wasn't a good look for him. So Jack took a deep breath, tried to steady himself, and lifted up the gig. He ran his hand along it slowly. "My previous gig broke in the belly of a large salmon when he was pinned in between a rock and a riverbank. It lost two of its prongs."

Seth listened, because Seth always listened when Jack spoke. Always.

"If I had been the Third," Jack murmured, "I would have continued to fish, making the best out of what I had. I would have ignored the difficulty, continued to try because it what was best for my people, those who depended on me to feed them. If I had been the Beta, I would have spent a lifetime on the river bank determined to fix that which had broken." Jack smiled and hefted his gig. "If I had been Alpha, it never would have dared break in the first place."

Seth chuckled and when Jack once again offered the tool and rope to the Beta, Seth accepted. "I think you're giving us a little too much credit," Seth said, although he was smiling again. "But yeah, you're right. Give Paul a broken spear when he needs to fish, and he's still fishing no matter what. And it would never occur to Jake that the spear could break."

"And you, Beta?" Jack asked as he watched Seth slowly and carefully retie a very difficult knot that two boys, a fish and a fishhook, had devised so that the fishhook would stop losing his fish and gig into the water where he could not chase it.

Seth shot Jack a boyish grin and held up the fastened knot proudly. It would hold. "And I am awesome," Seth declared cheerfully, giving the rope a tug to show he was in fact awesome. "Thanks to your awesome teachings, of course," Seth added fairly. Then he took a long look at the piece of cedar, running his fingers over the etchings. "This is actually really amazing, Jack. Beautiful. I know I've picked your brain too much already today, but would you teach me how to fish with this? It's kind of badass, you know."

Jack ducked his head shyly. "If you wish, Beta," he spoke with utmost respect.

"_Seth_," the Beta chuckled as he handed Jack the carved tool back. "You can use my name more often, Jack, I won't bite."

So it seemed. The Beta certainly hadn't bitten him yet. They spent the afternoon on the banks of the tributary, Jack showing Seth that patience was needed but that swiftness was needed as well. He taught Seth to use their keen eyes to pierce the deeper waters. He taught Seth how to pick the fish that was most suitable to what they wished to eat, which were females and full of eggs in their bellies, which were weakened by spawning and about to die. Jack taught Seth the speed and angle in which to throw, when to trust the rope to bring the gig and fish back to them, when it was better to go retrieve them oneself.

Seth taught Jack to wear a bright red hat and scare the fish away, and that even if the Beta wasn't going to catch anything, the Beta could still find pleasure in holding a rod and taking a nap while a red and white bobber bobbed. Jack learned that Seth loved his father more than he loved fish, and Jack learned that watching a bobber bobbing wasn't particularly interesting, but was best when done at the Beta's side. Seth learned that Jack was _not_ planning on pursuing any future escapades with his sister, which was a relief for him because Seth still hadn't figured out how to beat Jack up, and Jack learned that offering to stand still so the Beta did not miss in his attempts didn't offend Seth, only amused him.

Both learned that they liked carving and fishing and hotdogs, and if that was all that they ever ended up having in common, that was good enough.

Seth took home four salmon in his bucket of water, three for his family and one for an orange haired girl he was going to tease by making her gut and clean her own dinner. Jack pulled an old broken antler knife out of his belt and used it to slice his own two salmon from tail to ribcage, cleaning them out and leaving the guts for the other fish to eat. He would smoke them both, because even if he wasn't hungry now, the ancient wolf had learned that he would be hungry tomorrow, no matter what life brought him. Then Seth and his bucket and his memories went home, and Jack wished he could follow. Instead Jack went his own way and sat beneath an apple tree, listening as his dead Alpha told Jack that one of these days he would have to follow his own advice and stop fishing for two. Jack would, eventually, but not yet. It had been a very good day, hadn't it? The dead Alpha chuckled and wondered why Jack was bothering to ask him. After all, he _was_ dead.

Yeah…Jack knew. But still, it _had_ been a good day. In fact it was one of the best Jack could remember in the last two centuries, so the old brindled wolf curled up and put his nose on his paws contentedly. Yes, today belonged to the best of days. His eyes blissfully closed, Jack spent the rest of the afternoon remembering it.

* * *

Renesmee liked history.

She liked learning about how the world used to be, how the ideals and the decisions of the people of the different times in history caused her own world to be the way it was now. She liked drawing parallels between societies, where newly emergent cultures went right and where they inevitably went wrong. She liked studying the economies of these cultures, was fascinated by the barter system, was more fascinated with the nearly paperless currency trends that were growing across the world. She liked to predict where the world was going based on where it had been, wondered what her role could be in that prediction, questioned the value of a single person versus a society as a whole.

Renesmee had a whole collection of binders full of charts and drawings, ideas and theories, and not once had her family had to step around papers spread out all over the living room as she shuffled her thoughts from one place on the carpet to another, trying to make sense of it all. She had color coded her papers, her mind, her contribution to what was most likely, and when she was feeling particularly revolutionary, Renesmee liked to take the bright playful pink ideas and throw them into the mix, just to see if any brilliant connections could be made with her spools of yarn and hopefulness.

The little girl was pretty sure that if her Uncle Emmett had just stopped poking her papers with his toes last Saturday, she could have fixed the Black Plague before it happened, but his hopes for the Chicago Cubs making it the World Series were being dashed and that always left Emmett a little more rowdy than normal. Renesmee didn't know why Emmett was so surprised, the Cubs hadn't won the World Series since 1908, but Emmett was a "true fan", as the muscled vampire liked to say. Out of curiosity, Renesmee had gathered together her facts and thoughts and predictions about the reasons why the Cubs always did so badly, but after two days of shuffling about her papers, she had been just as lost as the rest of the country and was even more confused as to why her uncle would choose to be a true fan of something so uncertain and unpredictable. Her father had chuckled and told her that it was Emmett, and Renesmee had been forced to agree that it made sense for the illogical it behave illogically, although she was smart enough to keep said fact to herself.

Edward had spent the whole day grinning every time he looked at Emmett and only Renesmee had understood why.

It had been interesting for what it was, but Renesmee found history much more interesting than sports, and so she was in her room arranging her papers once more. Renesmee was grounded, something that was almost novel to her, although she had to admit that she felt sad that she wasn't allowed downstairs to listen to her mother play the piano today. Her family had forgiven her for her actions from the moment the hunger had hit her outside, but her actions leading up to that were what had her in trouble. Her mother and father had felt it wasn't responsible of her to have not told Emmett and Rosalie that she had become that hungry, and Renesmee agreed. She had been embarrassed at the time of her hunger, but her mother had been very stern and told her that embarrassment was understandable, but when it could have put a human's life at risk, Renesmee needed to learn to accept that she was special and make appropriate choices to accommodate the specialness.

Renesmee had been tempted to whisper that wanting to eat Jacob didn't make her special. After all, they might not blame her for her actions after the hunger became uncontrollable, but Renesmee didn't. Therefore she accepted her grounding readily after they had told her to stop apologizing, but she was voluntarily doing extracurricular projects as an added act of contrition. She had written an essay on the Queen of England, and to make it more difficult, Renesmee had done so in French. She had written a second essay on the current members of the British Parliament, and a third focusing on the Prime Minister. When that hadn't felt sufficient, Renesmee had translated both into French as well, but that felt equally insufficient, so she did her best at another translation into Latin. Finally her mother told her that she needed to stop finding ways to apologize for something she had been forgiven for. Her family wasn't mad and neither was Jacob. The little girl believed her, but forgiveness was in the eye of the beholder, just as beauty was. It was harder to look and find either in oneself.

Jacob had stopped by twice to try and talk to her, but Renesmee had silently begged both times to be given an excuse to avoid the confrontation. She wasn't ready to look in the eyes of someone she had…she wasn't ready and Bella had convinced Jacob to give Renesmee some time. She was pretty sure seeing him would just make her cry, she felt so very badly about what had happened, and to be honest she was hiding from him.

The second time Jacob had stopped by to see her, and had been turned away, Renesmee had felt so guilty that she had started doing extracurricular projects again. She continued doing so in her spare time, which she had a lot of, and she did them in her room, which she tended to stay in anyways. And that was where Jacob Black found her, stretched out on the carpet surrounded by her most logical charcoal grey thoughts, her feet kicking the air as she listened to Billy Joel and tried to decide if he had thrown in Cola Wars into his song "We Didn't Start The Fire" simply because he was running out of current events to use.

What Renesmee didn't know was that the wolf was downwind and had been grinning at her for about a minute or so from the open doorway, his arms crossed as he listened to her sing. Renesmee had a pretty voice, but she couldn't hold a perfect tune if her life depended on it. Billy Joel's history inspired music was no exception.

The little girl was aware of this, so she was singing softly to herself, bare heels thumping together to the beat. "Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkies, mafia, hula hoops, Castro-"

"You know, the hula hoops and the baseball stuff were the only things I ever understood in that song," the huge Alpha chuckled from the doorway, and Renesmee made a little yelp of surprise, knocking her hopeful yellow thoughts into her still to be determined which color white thoughts.

"You scared me, Jacob," Renesmee said, flushing a little as she realized he had heard her singing, and Jacob grinned at her as she quickly turned off her i-Pod.

"Aww, am I in trouble again?" the Alpha asked her, hitting her with his best puppy dog eyes, the ones that made Renesmee cave every time. "And here I came with a peace offering."

Sure enough, a peace offering had been brought. It was a movie that she had secretly admitted to Jacob that she wanted to see, even though she couldn't find any reason why she should want to see it. It was based off of some of the worst literature Renesmee had ever picked up, and it failed horribly in appealing to either Renesmee's sense of morals or level of intelligence. But still…she had wanted to see it. Clearly telling Jacob had been a bad idea, because there it was, dangling in his hand in all its inappropriate glory.

"Can't stay mad at me forever, Nessie," Jacob told her with another grin, this one hopeful.

"I was the one that was in the wrong, Jacob," Renesmee said softly. "You shouldn't be apologizing to me."

"Oh, I'm not," the Alpha informed her, stepping into her room and eyeing her thoughts curiously. "But I was thinking that you're avoiding me, probably for a lot of reasons I wouldn't understand even if you explained them to me slowly. Which sucks, because the only fun thing to do around this place besides annoy Blondie is to hang out with you. I was lonely watching this by myself."

He waggled the movie at her, and Renesmee tilted her head to the side. "I don't believe that you watched that movie," she decided, and Jacob grinned even more.

"The hell I didn't, Nessie," Jacob smirked. "All thirty minutes, but it wasn't the same without you. So of course I had to come over and watch it here instead. That is, if you're not still mad at me. If you are, I guess I'll have to go, huh?" He looked sad at the thought as he squatted down on the outside of her already organized thoughts, eyeing them again before turning the sadness her way. Renesmee knew he was working her, but she loved Jacob and when he looked sad, it made her want to fix it.

"I'm not mad at you, Jacob," Renesmee insisted, getting up and walking over to him. "I promise I'm not mad." He was as tall as she was like this, so when she decided that maybe he wouldn't want her too close to him and stopped, he caught the quick flash of uncertainty in her eyes. She started to reconsider the proximity he might want, but when Renesmee decided it was better to give him more space, she _had_ eaten him after all, Jacob reached out and snagged her little finger, hooking it with his large thumb.

"Nessie," Jacob said quietly, giving her pinkie a gently tug. "I'm not mad either, honey. If I messed up by letting you feed on me, then I won't do it again. But you were hungry, Nessie, and you needed help. It doesn't change how I feel about you, or how I see you. You know that, right?"

His kindness made her eyes start to water, and when she was sad or scared, Renesmee took safety in politeness and controlled conversation. "Jacob," the little girl started to say, trying her best to be responsible and grown up. "As much as I appreciate your and your Pack's understanding, it doesn't change the fact that I made a grievous mistake that could have led to someone getting killed. You shouldn't have allowed me to-"

Jacob Black had never growled at her, unless it had been in play, so she wasn't ready to be growled at now. It was a short growl, barely a note, but it stopped her midsentence.

"Nessie, _enough_," the Jacob said firmly, and there was enough Alpha in his voice that she could feel the weight of it settle over her. "Enough of this. You're the smartest little girl I know, but you're still a little girl, and I have never forgotten that for an instant. _You're a child, Nessie_. I'm not, so don't tell me what to do or how I should run my lands and Pack. If I decide you're blameless, than that's all you need to know. I'm telling you that everything's okay, so accept it, kid."

Renesmee felt the weight of his disapproval, and it hurt her. So it didn't make any sense that she ended up with her little arms wrapped around his neck as she sniffled and tried not to do so loud enough that anyone could hear. Jacob exhaled when she hugged him and he hugged her back, making soft shushing noises. It occurred to her that Jacob had given her what she felt she needed from him, a lecture and forgiveness, and the fact that the Alpha was kind enough to readily do both made her feel worse even as it made her feel better. The Alpha's body heat was a rarity for Renesmee, so she buried her face into his shoulder as he stood up, hefting her up with him.

"Talk to me, Nessie," Jacob said gently even as he walked around the room the way he had done when she was a baby, bouncing her a little as he paced slowly. "What happened that night?"

"I got hungry," she sniffled, and if Jacob cared that she was getting his t-shirt damp, he wasn't showing it.

"Yeah, baby, but that was a little different than normal. What made you _so_ hungry?"

Her palm on his neck explained as much as she was allowed to explain. She was growing, she had waited too long, she had needed fresh blood and didn't want to hurt the bunny…

Jacob listened patiently, then hefted her a little higher on his side. "You used to hunt all the time, Nessie," he reminded her.

She hadn't known any different. She hadn't known any better.

"You think it's wrong to hunt, Ness?" he asked, sounding curious although there was a note of understanding in his voice.

If it wasn't wrong, she would be able to hunt without feeling as if she was doing something terrible. The bunny had been bad, but when it had been Jacob…

"When it was me, it was even worse," Jacob finished for her. He sighed, and Renesmee could hear him pressing the Open button on her DVD player with his free hand. "Nessie, I knew you didn't hunt as much, but no one ever told me why. But it's not so cut and dry, honey. When you eat a hamburger, do you feel bad about that?"

"No," she sniffled again. But should she? Was it anymore okay to consume something whose life had been propagated solely for that purpose? A cow didn't want to be hurt, didn't want to die. No one wanted to die, and tasting good with ketchup wasn't a good reason for something to be killed. Just like tasting like blood wasn't a good reason to be killed either. Could a half vampire half human survive as a vegetarian? Renesmee wasn't sure what would happen to her if she stopped eating—

"_**No**_, Nessie," Jacob growled again, "You're _**not**_ stopping eating." Renesmee once more felt the weight of his disapproval settle over her, as if it was a blanket wrapped around her. With her parents she felt guilt for making them unhappy, but with Jacob it was palpable. Why was that? Why did she feel—

"Nessie honey, you're thinking so fast it makes my brain hurt," Jacob told her. "Slow down, okay? Come on, me and you, we're going to go make some steaks downstairs because it is okay to eat things, Ness. You need blood, honey, it doesn't matter why, it's just the truth. Plus Rose never paid up in the steaks department because Bells kept kicking me out."

But how could it be okay? Jacob killed vampires for needing blood.

"_Human_ blood," he corrected her. "Taken by _killing_ a human, Ness. There's a difference."

Was there?

"_Yes_. Stop arguing with me and trust me, Ness." The Alpha in his voice was back again, so Renesmee wiped her eyes and did as she was told. Jacob didn't always make sense, and she was too smart to think that Jacob was right and she was wrong. But there was something about letting him be right for right now that just made things easier. Better. Jacob was an authority figure, and tonight she would try not to think beyond that authority. Did she really think that fast?

"Yeah, you do, honey," Jacob chuckled, opening the DVD case and sticking the disc in to be ready for them to watch when they returned. "But don't feel bad. Ask your dad sometime how fast Paul's fiancée thinks and have him compare you two. At least you think in English and don't attack me with cars."

Renesmee wasn't sure what to think about that.

She and Jacob went downstairs, cooked a rare steak for both of them, and despite the loud disapproval of Alice, brought their steaks back up to her room. They sat cross legged on Renesmee's bed because her extra thoughts were on the floor, and Alice kept fluttering in, convinced that Jacob was going to spill steak sauce on Renesmee's designer comforter. The little girl giggled when Jacob kept making wet noises in his sauce and saying "Oops" quietly enough to send Alice storming back in again. Renesmee giggled again when Jacob cursed under his breath because he _actually_ spilled his steak sauce, but by then Alice didn't believe him and when Bella stuck her head in to check on them, she seemed more amused than upset at the spot that Jacob tried to cover with his plate innocently.

Renesmee snickered, put her palm on Jacob's arm and decided that he really did get in trouble a lot. Even more than she had been lately. The Alpha grinned wolfishly at her and winked, and she blushed but it was impossible not to grin back at him.

She still felt bad about the cow that had become her steak, but with her stomach full and Jacob's bribe playing, it was harder for Renesmee to be upset about it. Jacob had inhaled his food and the rest of hers when she had eaten her fill, so he kicked his shoes off and relaxed back against the headboard, making sure to keep Renesmee tucked up to his side. It was rare for the wolves, even Jake, to have this much physical contact with her, his warm ribcage much different than her father or her uncles' cold ones. But Renesmee found the heat soothing. Every once in a while Jake messed her hair up just to be annoying, but it only made her smile.

He still smelled good and at one point Renesmee wondered what it would be like to taste fresh human blood again, but she forced herself to turn away and ignore the urge to bite the arm draped loosely over his bent knee. She never saw him watching her, never saw the concern followed by the pride as she scratched her nose to cut the scent before going back to the movie.

Renesmee liked history. She liked science and math and logic and reasoning. This movie had none of those things. What it had were four twelve-year-old girls walking around in designer clothes, determined to make each other feel miserable about themselves. They said things involving barbeques and staying out of people's grills, dated fourteen year old boys that didn't even realize the little girls were supposedly dating them, and walked in tandem down the halls in their school. Renesmee had never been to a school, had never had girls of her equal age, size, and financial status to attend said school with, and she had never walked in tandem.

"Jacob?" Renesmee asked at one point, looking confused. "May I ask a question?"

Jacob, who had glared at four different people in the process of buying _The Clique_ for him and Renesmee to watch that day, and who was suffering much more than she realized watching middle school girls fight for an hour and a half about who was prettier, stopped staring at the television in poorly concealed horror.

"Yeah, Ness?" he asked, sounding a little dazed. "What's up?"

"Does your girlfriend flip her hair? They all flip their hair, but I've never seen mother or Aunt Rose or Aunt Alice flip their hair," she wondered.

Jacob blinked, then smirked and turned back to the film. "Ness, I don't _have_ a girlfriend."

"But you have an imprint," she said, confused. "Mother and father were talking about it, and they said that it would only be a matter of time before you and she were in a more formalized relationship."

The Alpha chuckled at that and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Oh they did, did they? Well, they'll be waiting. My imprint's name is Samantha, Nessie, and she's dating Embry. I'm not inclined to steal my brother's girlfriend, even if I had wanted to be in a 'more formalized relationship' with her. To be honest, those two are gonna end up married, and if Embry has his way, sooner rather than later. They're moving in together at the end of the month."

Renesmee didn't understand. "Jacob? Isn't the purpose of imprinting to find a genetic match? For more successful perpetuation of the genetic line? Why would you imprint on someone and she have no interest in that end result?"

It took him a minute to follow, but then he answered as honestly as he could. "Because she's in love with Embry, Ness," Jacob rumbled quietly. "That's all there is to it. Not everyone gets the chance to be with the one they want, and I'm not standing in their way. To be honest, I have no clue why I imprinted on her, but it may be for the sole fact that it keeps me here. My leaving was a mistake, at least for how long I left, and now I can't." The Alpha was quiet, and then he gave her a little smile. "But in answer to your question, no. Samantha doesn't flip her hair. And she only walks in tandem with Leah, and I don't think they even realize they do it."

That seemed to amuse him, so Renesmee smiled back and leaned back into his side. The movie was nearly over when Renesmee fell asleep, curling up on her pillow with her nose practically buried in Jacob's hip, the comforting weight of his hand on her head. She woke up slightly when her mother came in and sat on the bed next to her, although neither Bella nor Jacob noticed.

"Thank you for being so good to her, Jake," Bella said in her musical voice, sounding a touch sad. "She's been going through a tough time. It upset her deeply what happened in La Push."

"Bells, you know I'm the last person to be giving parenting advice, but I'm worried about Ness," Jacob said softly so not to wake her. "She's all over the place these days and it doesn't seem to be getting better. And seriously, the kid's color coating her notes on history lessons. It's just weird."

She was weird. Oh... Renesmee hadn't realized that.

"Carlisle says it's just a stage, Jake," Bella replied. "But Edward and I are worried too. We're thinking of taking her away for a while, up north."

"There's a new wolf in charge in Calgary now, but there's also a Pack outside Juneau, Bells," the Alpha mumbled. "I don't want either of you leaving from where my Pack can keep you safe. It might be easier for her to be away from certain things, but you'll be walking into the potential of other things. And Ness has so few friends already…"

"Edward and I are still talking about it Jake," Bella assured him. "If we decide to leave, you know you'll be one of the first to know."

"I better be," he grumbled, and Renesmee felt her mother reach over her and touch Jacob's shoulder. He flinched at her cold fingers, at the offered comfort, but he never pulled away. Renesmee had never ever known Jake to pull away. It was always her mother who broke the contact, who left Jacob where he stood, and she always did so quickly, usually when the Alpha started to shift even the tiniest bit closer. Renesmee had seen the she-wolf, Leah, do the same. When she had been young enough to not know better, she had asked her grandmother why, and Esme had told her that Bella did it to protect Jacob but that Leah did it to protect herself. It was still hard to understand. Closer to Jacob had always seemed safest to Renesmee when offered outside options from her parents.

After a while Jacob dropped a kiss on her head and then followed Renesmee's mother outside, turning off the light and closing the door. She missed him, now that he was gone. She wished that she could have told him so, but it was too late, and calling this late was improper. She would have to call him and thank him for his time spent with her tomorrow. Yes, she should definitely thank him. That night Renesmee prayed for the baby raccoons in La Push to find a new mother, and for Jacob to find someone that didn't pull away from him, and for her to not have to eaten anything that didn't want to be eaten. She also prayed for someone to walk in tandem with, because something told her that the world would be better if she had that, and for her to be more aware when she was being weird. She didn't want to be weird, and lose the one close friend she had already.

When Renesmee slipped into sleep, she dreamed of watching fires she would never get to stand next to again.

* * *

Jake took the long way home that night.

Jake went past Embry's dojo, where his brother and his imprint were taking a long time closing up. Embry was still trying to fix the pipe that Samantha had somehow managed to break under the bathroom sink, the one that had flooded half the dojo floor this morning, the one that had made her keep slipping and falling on the slick flooring. Jake had told him how to fix it, he had done the same thing to Billy's kitchen sink more than once. As the Alpha ran, Jake shifted closer to Paul and Cassie's cabin, where she mumbled about cookies in her dreams and Paul mumbled about bills over the phone to his father, taking any advice he could on how to get him and Cass through the next couple months. Paul was a little less worried, Jake had bullied the council into releasing more funds to help Paul get Cassie to the doctors, to keep the afloat a little longer.

The russet wolf padded behind the Clearwater's house where Seth sat on his front porch and ate the last bit of fried fish, listening to an orange haired girl talk about something Seth didn't care about but would listen to attentively anyways because it mattered to her. Seth was worried he was starting to care for the girl, was worried about caring too much, had asked Jake what to do. Jake didn't know the answer to that, but life was short, and Seth hadn't had someone to care about in a long time. They could all be dead tomorrow, some parts of life just shouldn't wait, even if they blew up in your face later. Jake almost went in the old shack out in the woods where Jared hauled a drunken Brady to his feet and growled at him that this shit had to stop, no one believed Collin's story that Collin and Brady had traded shifts, and that this was the third time this week Brady couldn't even walk to get home. Jake hadn't known that. He'd have to talk to Brady again. The kid had asked for more time to pull himself together, but obviously it wasn't working.

Jake circled further out and found Quil patrolling near the Makah reservation, worrying about leaving Claire, but less worried now that Jake had promised he'd keep a wolf up patrolling there even after Quil had left. Jake shifted south and found Jack humming to himself on the roof of a trailer, listening to a vampire talk to a frightened rabbit about true love and blonde hair. The ancient wolf looked particularly content tonight, days where he got to attend a Pack meeting always kept him happy, and he was smiling slightly as he polished a long piece of cedar that lay across his lap. A contented Jack made the Alpha particularly pleased, the guy had faced enough shit in his life and deserved a fucking break, and it was one of the reasons why they were meeting once a week now. It was also why Jake hadn't strangled him for sleeping with Leah, because Leah deserved a fucking break as well.

Speaking of Leah, Jake circled back in again, told his she-wolf to go home and get some sleep. He'd finish her shift, she'd been pulling too many doubles to have an excuse to run off her excess worry. She'd worry less if she slept more and spent more time relaxing. Leah found that amusing, but gratefully did as he suggested, promising she'd even be nice to the carrot on the front porch her brother was still undecided about nibbling on.

Jake ended up side by side with Sam, running silently and thinking about rabbits. Sam was too old to question why but when _he_ was the Alpha, _he_ had never thought about rabbits. Yeah well, times change old man. Jared had gotten Brady to a couch, left him with a worried and angry Kim, which was much better than any scolding that Jared could have done, and Jake left Sam to join the other wolf. He bumped Jared's shoulder, got bumped back by the older wolf, felt Jared's contentment at running at Jake's side. It was less scary leaving Kim when he knew Jake was there. Jake had already said he'd watch out for the two members of Jared's tiny family of three, and Jared had faith in his Alpha. Jake said everything would be fine and that was good enough for Jared.

Jake stopped in the center of his territory and lifted his muzzle to the sky. Across his own little chunk of the world, those that mattered paused and listened, raised their voices along with his, even if only in their hearts. A young man on a porch teased a girl by winking at her and telling her that the biggest baddest wolf was out tonight, he'd better walk her home. A young woman rolled over in her fiancée's bed and mumbled the cookies weren't in the basket, she'd left her hood in the closet and couldn't get another one because her squirrel didn't like it. Two little girl snored lightly in their respective bedrooms, lost in dreams as an older girl miles away teasingly flipped her hair at Jake's brother. A woman with scars traced them as she stood in front of a mirror, and a woman without scars handed a young man a glass of water instead of dumping it on his face like she was tempted to do. They were Jake's Pack. _His_. His to care for. His to protect. His to help get them through their troubles, he just wasn't always sure how.

As his large russet paws padded silently across the land, it never occurred to Jake that just in being there, he already was. Raising his muzzle once more, Jake sang to the world, and to the sky, and to their home. Hundreds of miles away, because the other Alpha was feeling particularly lonely that night, Tupkuk raised his voice to match Jake's own, not even fully understanding why.

* * *

The leg resting across Neel's lap had seen better days. Maybe it was time to go get a new one. The tall slender vampire stood up and smiled, propping the dried out leg against his shoulder as he twisted his head to the side and felt the bones crack. He gave the high heeled shoe a fond pat and headed off towards La Push.

Yes, it was definitely time to get a new one.


	5. Chapter 4 Part One

A/N So I wanted this to be the last chapter before the Jack/Renesmee imprint occurred, and the chapter ended up being far too massive to post as a whole. So I broke it in half. The first half happened to be more Pack scene centered, but the second half will be almost entirely Jack and Renesmee scenes. Here's the first half, and expect the second half in a couple days. NaNoWriMo is over, so hopefully I'll be back on a timelier update schedule. Also, I posted a patrol schedule for the wolves on my live journal, in case anyone wants to follow who's running when. I know, I'm a dork. ^.^ To clear up any confusion, we're a couple weeks from Halloween, so Jack hasn't imprinted yet. Thanks to my reviewers: _cylobaby, hilja, EnglishVoice, Elvira Iula, 82c10akaLynn, MadToTheBone, MargotTenn, laurazuleta18, Buffyk0604, TeffieS, toalli, moani-sama, dirtychicken, The all mighty and powerfulM, KerryH, LightIsPrecious, lionandlamblover, Roonani, Scented Hairpin, StealthLiberal, Jacobleah, To-Do-Lister, _and_ QahlanKwaiya_. I really appreciate the feedback!

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Four (Part One)

**_England, 1526 AD_**

_The King was in a mood. It was always dangerous when the King was in a mood. _

_His padded black leather shoes slapped the polished palace floors as he strode angrily through the halls, his handsome face as much a thundercloud as the ones pouring rain outside. Dismissing his guards with an impatient wave of his hand, his frown caused the already scuttling late night servants to pale and scatter. Even though it was nighttime and the King should have long since retired, he was still dressed as he had been earlier that evening at dinner. His only acknowledgment to the lateness of the hour was the lack of the long sleeved gown that customarily draped his shoulders over jerkin and doublet, and the missing jewels that usually graced his hands and neckline. Even without the furred scarlet robe, or the jewelry, or the guards, there was no doubt exactly who this man was, and the few nobles left in the hallways bobbed their bows and curtsies and scattered just as quickly as the servants had._

_It didn't pay to stand in the way of the King. _

_No one even came close to daring, so as the young monarch let out an angry snarl and stomped down a side corridor, it never occurred to him that he couldn't simply barge into one of the rooms reserved for his wife the Queen's many companions. It never occurred to him that he should have left Catherine's companions to Catherine, and not sought to use them to suit his own needs. But that was not the man that this King was. This King accumulated things, the best things, and kept them in his possession. And since the day Henry Tudor had turned a corner and seen the Spaniard politely lapping up an innocent's blood, Ricardo de Vaena had become one such thing. _

_By the time of his death in 1547, Henry the VIII, King of England, would have many possessions. He would have fifty-five palaces in which hung over two thousand tapestries. He would have fifty-three Royal Navy ships, sixty-five hundred handguns, and numerous mistresses. He would have six wives, two of which ended up shorter by a head by the time their lives were done. He would have an excommunication, an English Reformation, and a legacy of indulgence and arrogance. _

_Yet, no matter what else the King may have, Henry would only ever have one vampire. _

_There were certain things that even a King could not speak of, because he was a pious man, a man of Christ if not the Roman Catholic Church, and if wasn't safe for one's soul to align themselves with evil. However it was hard for anyone to view the cheerful and rather indolent Spaniard as anything close to resembling evil, especially when Ricardo mostly kept his blood consumption to those that the King dictated for personal reasons, and in his preoccupations with matters of the crown and the heavy weight of ruling England, Henry Tudor often forgot that one should never ever trust a vampire when in their presence. Not even if one was the King of England._

_If Ricardo had been inclined, he could have drained the good King dry and reminded him, but the vampire found political upheaval to be far too much effort to exist in, and he was quite content living, or being dead really, at the King's mercy. A charming and attractive (albeit often pale and ill seeming) courtier by day, a silent shadow dispensing the King's more discreet justice by night. Ricardo was well bred and well liked and well received. And he was comfortable. Very comfortable. He sang for the Queen's pleasure, hunted for the King's pleasure, and in a time when the Volturi had begun insisting that each vampire have broad hunting ranges to not draw attention upon their kind, Ricardo rarely had to leave the city or even the palace grounds for his meals. According to their arrangement, the monarch himself smoothed over any questions to missing servants and chambermaids. It was dreadfully convenient. The company was pleasing, the women were healthier and more beautiful than peasant women, and the dining…well…the English were just as filling as the Spanish, although to his dying day, Ricardo would swear that English blood tasted faintly of water and boredom. Still, no need to rock a boat, when the vampire had only recently become comfortable at his place near the tiller._

_For a supposedly conceited and self-important man, Henry was overly impressed with his own concepts of power, and suffered the habit of listening far too closely to the advice of far too few. _

_Why the King felt Ricardo de Vaena capable of providing any worthwhile advice was beyond the vampire, but he did, and Ricardo as a loyal subject felt obliged to provide…something. So when the King stormed into de Vaena's quarters as if he owned them, which, Ricardo supposed, the King did, it neither surprised nor annoyed the vampire. It took a lot to annoy this particular vampire, as such was the cost of comfortable living. Ricardo was stretched out luxuriously on the rugs laid along the cold stone floor, and as his nightly ritual had become, he was reading by candlelight. The candle was currently resting in the middle of his bared chest, sending the faintest golden sparkle across the vampire's skin. Ricardo supposed that he should get up and greet the King properly, but it was relatively late, after all, and he was just getting to the good part. Ricardo simply _hated_ being interrupted at the good parts._

_Henry stomped into the room, took one look at the sprawled and reading vampire, and then slammed the door closed behind him. The candle wobbled as the King strode up to Ricardo, and the vampire sighed when Henry glared down at him._

_"She is insisting on being stubborn about the matter," Henry snarled in frustration. "Your advice was _worthless_." With a huff of temper, the King kicked the candle off the vampire's chest, and Ricardo absently watched it fly across the room, splattering quickly drying wax on the carpeting around his bed. Then the Spaniard turned back to his book and flipped to the next page, well aware of the fact that Henry liked to kick things and not at all insulted. The candle was, after all, a possession of the King just as much as Ricardo was. They all were kicked about at his pleasure. As the candle decided to be resilient and continue burning and flickering on its side, Ricardo yawned with his lack of concern. _

_"Perhaps the Queen isn't inclined to be replaced by her lady-in-waiting," Ricardo chuckled good-naturedly, his accent only mildly reshaping his words. "I've not ever taken a wife, but in my experience, Spanish bred women usually tend not to enjoy being disposed, especially at the pressing of another woman." _

_"This is not about Anne!" the King roared, and a lesser man would have flinched. Ricardo merely turned another page. "It is about Catherine, and the fact that I never should have married my brother's widow. It was a sin and I am being punished for it by her childlessness!"_

_"Inform a woman of your regard, and she will own you. Earn a woman's regard, and you will own her," the vampire provided wisely, because for some reason the King expected such things from him. Those weren't Ricardo's words, he had stolen them from overhearing the gossip about the palace, but Henry didn't need to know that. Then the vampire grinned and glanced knowingly at his King. "Perhaps if Anne was to find regard for the Queen, then everyone could be content, and the fate of the country's monarchy not rest on a single woman's undergarments. That must be a lot of pressure, if I may say."_

_"You may _not_ say, de Vaena, and if you were a man, you would be _hanged_ for such blasphemous words!" The King snarled, pacing the room and every so often pausing to kick something new. "I may choose to burn you yet!"_

_The vampire wiggled more comfortably into the carpeting, looking less than concerned. "As your majesty wishes," he said soothingly, scratching his hip and blowing a strand of pale blonde hair out of his eyes._

_"Catherine cannot bear me a son, _will not_ bear me a son, and it is time that she accept the fact that our marriage is a sin against God and the Church," Henry declared heatedly. "She won't listen to me, demon, but as her countryman, she has been known to listen to you after your songs. You _will_ speak to her about this and you will _make_ her understand. It is a pressing matter of faith, and cannot be allowed to continue!"_

_Ricardo smiled as he turned another page, his eyes flickering over the lettering now cast in shadow by the removal of his candle. "Out of curiosity, your majesty, do you find it at all droll that you're asking a demon to assist you in a matter of faith? And I highly doubt that Catherine listens to anything other than my playing, no matter what your courtiers say. My opinion must be crooned into sympathetic ears in varying melodies to be held of any measure. By the way, would you care for some wine? I'm trying to develop a taste for it."_

_"You're a vampire," the King snorted. "What need have you of wine and the Holy Word?" Henry gestured at the leather bound book in Ricardo's hands, and the vampire sadly realized that the King would never go on his way until properly attended. So Ricardo tucked a strip of cloth in the Bible to mark his page and closed it, regretfully and rather lazily rising to his feet._

_"I think, your majesty, that it is assisting a demon in a matter of faith," the vampire decided lightly, his smile just as easy as ever it had been. The vampire had always kept his smile, even when the King had by chance discovered Ricardo lolling about in one of the less occupied castle wings, licking the blood of a servant boy off his fingers. _

_It had been an accident, a trick of the wind and the music playing loudly at the midsummer festivities being held outside, and a King who liked to steal away with his various lovers in hidden corners about the castle. That lover, a young woman named Mary Bolen, had been terribly frightened and ordered into silence by a King who had been clever enough to know that discretion could be the greater part of valor. And that the vampire could have easily killed them both. And where Mary had been frightened, the devout yet impressionable Henry had been intrigued. The King liked powerful things, and a vampire was nothing if not powerful. So he and Ricardo made a compromise in which no one died, except for those that Henry asked for and the occasional tasty morsel that no one would miss, that the King would make sure no one missed. It was Mary's sister, Anne, who was the cause of Henry's lust, and Catherine's grief, and Ricardo's lack of quality reading time. _

_If Henry had asked, Ricardo would have gladly killed her, he liked killing pretty girls as feisty and devious as Anne. He was tempted to kill her anyways just to do it. _

_"So, your majesty," Ricardo said grandly, bowing the way he should have the moment the King walked into the room. "Who shall I kill for you tonight? If a blonde, it shall be my pleasure. If a redhead, after my pleasure, it shall be."_

_Henry stared at him for a moment, and then looked annoyed when Ricardo winked at him suggestively. "You say it so casually," Henry grumped, stomping over to the small table that held a decanter of white wine and pouring himself a crystal goblet full. "And no, there is no one, at least not yet tonight," he snarled, draining his wine and tossing the goblet to the floor, the crystal shattering into a thousand pieces, each one different, each one beautiful, each one perfectly unique. Ricardo stared, distracted, lost in the simplicity and the exquisiteness of that simplicity. _

_He always had appreciated the broken things more than most. _

_"Speak with my wife, she listens to you," Henry repeated, seeming calmer now that he had passed the trouble into another's hands to be dealt with. "Be convincing."_

_"How convincing?" Ricardo asked lightly, just because the King was afraid of him, just because he could. Henry pretended to not hear the seductively smooth undertones to that question. After all, Ricardo could be _very_ convincing._

_"Just make her see the truth, and the wrongness of our marriage, de Vaena," the King barked. "I would have this matter done and gone." And then Henry spun around on his heel and strode out at about the same time the overturned candle sputtered one last time and died, plunging the room into darkness._

_"A pleasure, as always, Henry my good man," Ricardo chuckled, shaking his head. It always amused him that one born in filth and destitution was no lesser than one born to wealth and privilege. In the end, they were all the same, their hopes and their dreams, their desires and their hatreds, their freedoms and that which enslaved them. It was remarkable how often love factored into all of those things. Humans were possibly the most interesting, and most predictable creature of all. _

_Ricardo had always said that the human that managed to surprise him would be the one he would kill the best. _

_Henry the Eighth, King of England, was far from surprising, so Ricardo merely shrugged and righted his candle, placing it next to his bedside and leaving it unlit. The vampire waited until the last sounds of the King's footsteps were gone, Henry had a habit of wandering back when it was least convenient, and then Ricardo moved to his open window, the one that he had been listening through with interest as he read. There was a nice smelling young chambermaid cleaning the quarters directly below his, one that was too new to ever be noticed missing, and the patter of the rain in tandem with the soft playing of the mistrals in the next wing over held a pleasant cadence to the beating of her heart. The night was a young as the chambermaid, and such was made for love. The Spaniard too was made for such things, although he had stopped being young over four hundred years prior._

_He hoped that she was as pleasing to the eyes as she was to the rest of his senses. _

_Ricardo made sure to straighten his blonde ponytail and reach for his cap, he always had preferred a cover for his head. Then his eyes gleamed black as he stepped into the windowsill and casually let himself drop. The chambermaid would find love that night, her limbs entangled with those of another, her romantic heart beating with hope and excitement, her body flushed bright with blood as she trembled in cool arms. If she had been a cruel, cold, callous lover it might have spared her life, but she was not, and it did not, and she was never seen from again._

_Ricardo licked his lips, pulled his hat over his eyes and settled back on his floor, listening to the rain with a small smile. After all, the ones that cared always tasted the best._

* * *

It was pouring down rain the morning Paul Coho, Jared Qahla, and Quil Ateara left for Alaska. Leah Clearwater was determined not to consider that a sign.

At exactly 8:04 AM, Jacob Black climbed through Leah Clearwater's bedroom window and plopped down on her bed with a thump and an exhausted groan. From where she sat at the kitchen table, feet propped up on the next chair over and shoveling half a box of Lucky Charms into her mouth out of a deep metal Bundt cake pan, Leah paused momentarily and smirked. One minute to instruct the next patrol on what to expect, and one minute to synch himself with Brady and make sure the pup's most private thoughts were shielded by the Alpha's own slowly increasing ability to keep his Packs' thoughts private. One minute to drag his ass over here instead of going on to Billy's house, and one more to jimmy the newest lock she'd installed just for him.

The fact that he didn't simply snap the lock and render it useless showed that Jake cared. Which was probably why she wasn't kicking his ass out right about now.

"You better have clothes on, Jake," Leah called unnecessarily loudly as her brother wandered in through the front door, the more reasonable entrance into the Clearwater household. Seth was only wearing a pair of old basketball shorts, and he was soaked from head to toe, hands and feet covered in mud from patrolling in the storm outside. Leah took one look at Seth's feet and frowned, adding louder, "And if there's mud on my sheets, I'm breaking both your kneecaps!"

"M'kay," the Alpha mumbled into her pillow, still legible to the she-wolf's sensitive ears.

Seth, despite his obvious tiredness, seemed briefly amused. "He rinsed off with our garden hose," the Beta explained as he dropped heavily into the chair across from her. "Mom gone already?"

"Yep. Which means little Sethy poo has to cook his own breakfast," Leah grinned over her cake pan and showed him that it was almost empty. "Sorry, kid, we're out of cereal."

Sometimes the best part of Leah's day was seeing Seth try to restrain himself from throwing food induced hissy fits. Seth was so great with his control at all other times, but he was more like Collin and Brady then the pups knew. Seth was still growing, was still willing to throw down over his three square meals a day, and it was funny to watch him come apart at the seams over breakfast foods with marshmallows. Seth _really_ liked marshmallows.

"You're so _mean_, Leels," Seth declared, slumping pathetically in his chair after he decided that he couldn't or wasn't willing to eat her. "We're on twelve hour weekend patrols, Leah, the least you could have done was been waiting in here in an apron cooking us up something delicious and delectable like a good sister. But noooo. You sit here and eat all the cereal and read your magazine and leave your Alpha and Beta to wither away pitifully from hunger."

The she-wolf smirked and pointed to the counter. "Mom made a chocolate cake this morning before going to the store. She couldn't sleep last night." Sue Clearwater couldn't sleep a lot of nights. That didn't make her particularly unusual in La Push.

"Hells yeah," Seth declared, turning and spying the sealed plastic container that Sue tried to hide foods in when she wanted them to last more than a day. "Chocolately goodness, come to papa." Although apparently it took too much energy to actually get up and go get the cake. Instead Seth held onto the edge of the table and leaned his chair as far as he could, stretching so that his fingertips were almost touching the container. Leah wasn't a mean spirited person, but Seth had snuck half a basket of his nasty dirty brother underwear into her clothes hamper in hopes she'd accidentally do his laundry for him, so the kid had some payback coming.

It felt good to kick his chair. It felt better to watch him flail for a moment before landing on his back, cursing as he hit his head.

"Did you know that the bacterium in the stomach of someone who doesn't crave chocolate is different from the bacterium of someone that does crave chocolate?" Leah asked cheerfully as Seth groaned and stayed in place on his tipped over chair, his limbs sprawled dramatically. "They don't know if the bacteria causes the chocolate craving or if the eating of chocolate causes the bacteria." It was good for Seth to learn things. Leah was his big sister, she knew this to be for the best.

"Did you know that four out of five sisters actually would thank their lucky stars to be blessed with a brother as amazing as me?" Seth retorted grumpily as someone may have snickered from Leah's bedroom.

"Don't worry, Seth," Leah smirked, raising her cake pan and taking a long deep slurp of her remaining milk before licking her lips contentedly. "I'm not planning on lowering my standards anytime soon."

"I'm trading you in for another model," Seth told her as Leah stood up and yawned, stretching. "I'm pretty sure any clearance rack sister will do."

"If it helps, Samantha's sitting in a box in the sibling storage closet," Leah grinned down at him and nudged Seth's ankle with her foot. "You could probably get her for free if you try hard enough."

"Hmmm," Seth hummed speculatively. Leah smirked and stepped over her brother, setting her cake pan cereal bowl in the sink. Sue had left Leah the pan to scrap the sides off of, but Leah had figured that Lucky Charms were good, and extra bits of chocolate cake were good, so cereal in the cake pan had to be especially good. And being the fact that she was ultimately brilliant, her supposition had been correct.

It was good to be the smart one sometimes.

Leah wandered down the hallway, listening to Seth mumble about extra sisters in boxes and today being a bad idea as he opened the plastic container, thankful that she had been smart enough to eat half of it before Seth had gone. And Leah didn't think today was a bad idea, but that wasn't so much up to her as it was Samantha. They would see in a couple hours when they went to the dojo, but for now the guys needed to get some sleep. Jake would have slept better in his own bed, but apparently he preferred hers. He might have been the Alpha, but it was Leah's territory, so she made sure to make plenty of noise as she tossed open the door. Jake grumbled and groaned, although not as much as he would have later if she hadn't bothered to come in here at all. The Alpha could be very obvious when he was trying to steal some of her time and attention.

Smirking and momentarily willing to play, Leah crossed her arms and leaned in the doorway of her room, looking at the huge young man sprawled facedown at an angle across her bed. His right arm had made it on the mattress, but his left arm, both feet, and the top half of his head were all dangling off.

"You need a bigger bed, Lee-lee," Jake mumbled sleepily into her pillow, which was wedged somewhere near his jaw and throat and didn't look nearly as comfortable to her as a pillow should look when being laid on. "Seth's is bigger."

"Seth's a hog, you should know that by now," Leah chuckled. "He needs a bigger bed for his fat ass. _You_ could have just gone home, you know. I'm sure Billy can barely remember what you look like, Jake."

He was almost asleep, but the Alpha managed to lift his face enough to give flash her a charming smile. "But _you_ were here, Lee-lee." He upped the charm a little more, giving her a hopeful look and patting the air where a bigger bed would have been. "Wanna take a nap with me?"

Leah allowed herself to bask in that for a moment, his smile, his affection, his warmth turned her way. His interest. It appealed to her, the same way it appealed to her when Sam had used to focus in on her so often when he was Alpha, the same way it appealed to her that she was the only one allowed to chew on Paul's ears. It appealed to her the way it appealed to her when the new Calgary Alpha had watched her with open interest. But it appealed to her more than any of those other times because Jake was her Alpha, and she had his attention. It was a good moment. But Leah was pretty sure that a lot of her appealing moments were Pack induced, and that left them…lacking in sustenance. Feeling good was nice, as long as one realized why they felt good, and Jack had pointed out the obvious that she-wolves were attracted to their Alphas by nature of the beast.

Leah Clearwater wasn't too sure that was good enough for her.

Jake must have felt her waver, because he gave her a look that would have made most girls melt right into the ground. Hell if it didn't almost work. But then Leah grinned and flipped him off, because if anyone knew Jacob Black, Leah Clearwater did. "Nice try, Jake. Don't drool on my pillow like you did last time. It makes it smell like Alpha breath."

Jake sighed but was smiling even as his face once more hit the bedding. The Alpha would try, but he wouldn't succeed. Most likely he would end up sleeping here tomorrow anyways, like he had the day before, and the day before that, and he would drool on her pillow every time. Leah had told Jake that she was keeping her options open, and she couldn't help but appreciate his efforts to show her that she had an option right here. If Jake hadn't already given that cold dead bitch up on the hill everything he had worth giving, hell, she might have even been tempted to take it. But again, Leah had standards and she wasn't planning on lowering them anytime soon.

The day that Jacob Black realized for himself that he wasn't just a vampire's leftovers, gave up his fairy tale, well, then they could talk. And nap. And…yeah…But he had to be man enough to figure that shit out for himself without Leah spelling it out for him. Leah was a woman, and real women didn't need to babysit their men. Maybe Jake would get there, maybe not, he was still a kid. Only time would tell.

Jake had left the window slightly open, so Leah walked across the room with the intentions of pulling it firmer shut, hoping the pouring rain hadn't already gotten her bedroom carpetting wet. But the play of the water through the trees behind their house caught her eye, distracted her, tugged at her, made her want to go out there despite the wind and the rain and the cold. She stood staring out the southern facing window for a very long time.

Then, without warning, Leah Clearwater snapped it shut.

* * *

Most horses don't appreciate been ridden in the rain. Rico's mare was no exception.

For an animal that isn't capable of speech, they are very well versed in getting their opinions across to the humans around them. Flattened ears are a good sign a horse is unhappy with its current lot in life. A little wrinkling at the edges of its mouth, making the animal actually look like they're grimacing is another good bet. Rolling eyes until the whites are showing, flaring nostrils, the bunching of the back…all are good signs that an equine is feeling less than stellar at the moment.

The short sorrel mare was currently doing all of the above. If ever there was a simultaneously ticked off and frightened animal, it was the mare, because not only was she soaked to the bone and miserable about it, she also wasn't completely convinced that the rider on her back wasn't going to eat her before she managed to make it back to the warmth and dryness of her lean-to. It wasn't really her fault if she was distrustful. After all, horses hate vampires.

"Ya' know," the blonde vampire on her back declared as the mare bunched her back a little more and sidestepped nervously beneath him. "I don't think she likes me much, Jackie boy." Rico reached back and patted the mare's left hip, earning himself a small sideways hop that the mare was pretending wasn't a buck.

From his place on Rico's most recent mount of choice, a tall leggy roan who had learned a couple years ago to blissfully ignore the nature of the ones around it, Jack allowed his lips to curve into a small smile. "She got on just fine for me," he murmured peacefully, ducking his head as he urged the roan up and over a small rocky incline. The mare followed at Rico's tongue clucking, but her scattering feet caused her to slide backwards a few steps before she remembered that going forwards with a predator on her back was preferable to falling backwards with one. A push of her hindquarters and they cleared the incline too, although roughly, and the mare snorted as if it was her rider's fault. Jack smiled a little bigger when Rico let out a string of curses in his native language.

"I think we made a mistake with this one," Rico sighed, adjusting his hat as they threaded their way through the thick underbrush of the forest. "Lass is too damn smart. Why did we buy her again?"

"You like redheads," Jack reminded his oldest friend, and Rico chuckled and loosened the reins a fraction of in inch, just enough to make the mare relax her hunched back slightly and smooth out her steps.

"Yeah, that's true," Rico admitted. "Plus in her defense, I did eat her momma. That's gotta stick in her craw a little bit."

Rico had eaten many of their horses over the years, so many that Jack had lost count. It only ever bothered him when Jack himself had put an excess amount of time and attention into the animal, although if Jack had to choose between his friend eating a horse and eating a human, well, that was what happened sometimes. Plus it was usually only in rare occurrences. Rico had actually liked the sorrel's momma quite a lot, she had been his most used horse when he went out of town and played cowboy among the Oregon cattle farms, and unlike this one, that mare had trusted Rico implicitly.

It was a bad idea to trust a vampire implicitly. They were, after all, vampires.

The rain wasn't steady, instead shifting back and forth from heavy pounding on their heads and shoulders to a soft constant drizzle, and if they had been human it would have been the type of weather that would undoubtedly cause them to grow ill. But the horses, for all the sorrel mare's complaining, were hearty animals and bred cowponies, capable of handling much worse than this. Plus there was a stretch of time, years really, that Rico and Jack had ridden from sundown to sunup nearly every night, the vampire content to look at the moon and the stars and the wolf content to no longer be alone.

Jack was most definitely no longer alone anymore, but as he cast an occasional look at the slender blonde man hunched comfortably in the saddle next to him, he doubted if the same was true for Rico. For all of the vampire's human companions, it was very clear that he was a much an outcast from his own kind as Jack had been. The wolf instinctively swung the roan a few steps closer to the sorrel mare, and Jack wondered if Rico had known all along when he had subtly encouraged Jack to stay with the La Push Pack that it would mean that the vampire would be left to his own so much more. It made Jack sad to think about. The La Push wolves tolerated but didn't understand Jack's friendship with the vampire, and as the lowest ranking wolf in the Pack, it was instinctual for Jack to feel the desire to pull away from that which his Pack disliked. But Jack was an old wolf, and Rico had earned this old wolf's loyalty more times over than anyone could ever know.

The wolf and the vampire. They had been riding these trails together for a very long time now.

As if reading Jack's thoughts, which Rico could do when he paid close enough attention to body language, the vampire glanced at Jack out of the corner of his golden eyes. "So, Jack my man, how's Pack life working out for you?"

Jack tried but it was impossible to keep the smile from curving his lips as he thought of his Pack, those of his kind that had finally accepted him. "We have weekly meetings now," Jack said contentedly, leaning backwards and giving the roan more rein as the gelding began his slow careful descent down towards the riverbed below them. The mare huffed in annoyance as Rico pulled her up, then brought her back around to follow the roan's path.

"Only you would be excited by that," Rico chuckled. "Me, I'm not the meeting type. I prefer to go with the flow, know what I mean Jackie?"

"A river undirected empties into the sea, which rarely notices its contribution," Jack murmured placidly and Rico smirked.

"A river dammed in place grows fat and slow, while the river undirected flows fast and free," the vampire countered as the mare once again grew nervous and distrustful of her rider, her feet slipping and causing her to scramble for purchase. "Hey now lass," Rico growled, lifting the reins and forcing her head up so that the mare couldn't go head of over heels. "Jack, she's about half-witted for a smart girl like her. I'm selling this one."

"She thinks you're going to eat her, old friend," Jack stated with a quick smile over his shoulder. "She doesn't realize that the river undirected hasn't the time or inclination to eat. It is too busy babbling like a brook as it flows fast and free. The river dammed is silent and content, and carries that content to its own." Jack patted the roan's neck as the older gelding reached the riverbed and continued plodding along into the slow small stream running through it, as if rain and inclines and riverbeds meant nothing to the horse.

Rico was grinning even as he let out a little whoop of amusement when the mare decided that she was _not_ going into that stream, and ended up twisting and bolting away. The vampire hauled on the right rein, spinning her in a circle to keep her from doing anything more than the little half bucks of protest. "I'll give you that one about the babbling brook," Rico laughed, "But the dammed river is the damned river, and stagnates beneath its own indulgence. The river free is the river pure and clean, and if a river be me, old friend, that is the river that I would be. Hot damn, honey! It's just some water, it ain't gonna eat you!"

The mare seriously disagreed.

Jack flashed Rico a white toothed grin as the vampire tried and failed to get the mare across. The young ones were like this a lot, which was why they always took them out in pairs with an older, steadier animal. Jack rolled the roan around on his hindquarters midstream and clucked him back the way they had come. The ancient wolf rode behind the mare, who stood shivering with feet planted half in water and half in land, and Jack deliberately bumped his horse into Rico's, making her stumble. Rico immediately urged her forward as Jack's roan did the same, and being the herd animal she was, the mare followed, trembling into the water.

"I don't think that I am a river," Jack decided as he used his mount to help force Rico's through the shallow stream. "I think that I am the ocean, touching all of the land of which I see and existing on none of it."

"Believe you me, Jackie boy," Rico chuckled knowingly. "The river that flows fast and free cuts through the land of which you and I both see, and it is not the land but the sea which will be the end of me."

Several hundred years of friendship and still both were as much aware of the oddity of that friendship as ever. It was possible that it would be the end of both of them. So far, to Jack, his companion had been worth it. But was he worth it?

"Is the sea worthy of being the final resting place?" Jack wondered as the rain picked up harder, droplets bouncing back off the river water in a low spray. "Or are there better places for the river to end its journey?"

"Is the river worth waiting around for?" Rico countered, lifting his hat and giving Jack a piercing look. "When the land is already drawing the sea into it?"

Jack thought about that and then smiled slightly bowing his head. "The land may swallow the sea, but an ocean made of trees will still remember the river fast and free which cuts through it too deeply to be forgotten."

"No gonna forget me, old friend?" Rico chuckled his understand and pulled his weathered hat lower over his eyes. "Not even when your new Pack soaks you all up?"

"The ocean has plenty of itself to go around," Jack grinned, urging his roan out of the water and onto the muddy shore. "Plus, it is not as shallow as the river may think. It is the river that flows merely a few inches deep."

"Aww, I talk too much _and_ I'm shallow? You wound me Jack, you wound me," Rico declared dramatically as a low roll of thunder rumbled the skies. Jack raised his face and frowned, ignoring the rain stinging across his scarred face.

"The spirits are restless today," he murmured, turning sideways in his saddle and glancing around. Jack's eyes suddenly narrowed. "Rico," he said warningly, rolling the roan around to face back the way they had come.

"Yeah, I smell him," the old vampire muttered. "You really want to get involved in this, Jackie? You could ride on ahead, we both know he's here for me."

"He is dangerous," Jack replied quietly, already sliding from the saddle.

"So am I," Rico smirked, although there was no humor in his eyes as he watched the hilltop that they had just come down. It didn't seem to bother him that Jack was staying. Neither one of them cared to leave the other alone to face a danger better faced with two.

Jack busied himself by unclipping the reins from the roan's bit, attaching one to the halter the animal wore over the bridle instead and looping the second around the saddle horn, even though his casual movements were carefully controlled. He dropped the rein to the ground and stepped aside, knowing his gelding was taught to ground tie and would only run if need be. Rico however stayed on the mare, who would bolt the moment the second vampire's scent reached her nostrils. It was a pain in the ass running these animals down, because having a predator chase them would make them panic even more, and the mare was no good to them with a broken leg. Well, she was no good to Jack. Rico could find use for her, if that was their only option.

"It's a bad day for a pleasure ride, don't you think?" a male voice called from the top of the ridge, and as they had predicted, the mare panicked. The roan snorted once in surprise, but went back to standing at rest. In that moment, Jack had placed himself squarely between the now twisting and bucking sorrel and the figure standing above them in the rain.

"Not exactly my idea of a good time," Rico murmured placidly as he fought to bring the mare back under control. "I think she might actually like you less than she likes me. Easy lass, he ain't gonna eat you any more than I will."

The vampire moved with the grace of a predator and the speed of, well, a vampire. In the blink of an eye he was crouched on the other side of the small stream, eyeing Jack with faintly veiled contempt. Dark haired and dark skinned, and nearly as scarred with bite marks as the Cullen girl's dangerous mate, he was the most massive vampire that Jack had ever encountered, easily as large as the La Push Alpha. The vampire rose to his feet slowly, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

"Send your dog away, Rico," the scarred vampire stated in a deeply rumbling voice that was nearly lost beneath another roll of thunder overhead. "My business is with you."

"Jackie and I don't actually differentiate between his business and my business," Rico admitted good naturedly, although that wasn't quite the truth. Pack business stayed with Pack and vampire business stayed with the vampires, but this kind of business was better handled together, Jack knew.

Jack had stopped killing vampires without just cause a long time ago, but this one sent his hair on the back of his neck rising, and without thinking, Jack's lips curled back. This one was old, and this one was dangerous. This one was intruding on Jack's territory and threatening that which was Jack's and the wolf didn't like it.

Jack's Alpha had been sleeping, but not so deeply to not be roused from his slumber by the territorial snarl echoing through the Packbond. Knowing that the Alpha would grow concerned, Jack calmed himself, pushing back lightly against the part of his soul that was the Alpha's possession. Reassuring Jake that everything was handled. The push back said that the Alpha didn't seem too convinced, but Jack didn't have a way of expressing more than that right now. He was busy trying to watch for the motion that meant this one was going to try and kill him. It occurred to Jack that he was sandwiched between two vampires, but Jack had been in worse spots and recently too. That being said, the ancient wolf was pretty sure that this vampire had the capability of killing him. If he had been a younger wolf, one with a life ahead of him, he would have been afraid. As it was Jack merely stood ready and waiting.

Jack had his friend at his back, and a Pack he belonged to, and an Alpha that loved him. Jack was content. Today was as good as any day to die.

The vampire locked eyes with Jack, and Jack glanced away a moment too late. This vampire's clothing showed him to be one of the Volturi, who liked to keep gifted vampires in their menagerie of collectable things. A look barely too long and Jack was already caught, frozen still, held helpless as the ancient vampire leapt at him with a snarl.

A good day to die indeed.

Rico's body slid between Jack and the other vampire's momentarily, and that was all it took to break the vampire's ability to hold its prey, at least with a wolf as strong as Jack. Another wolf might have been glued to this spot for hours, but Jack wasn't another wolf, and even as Rico skidded into a crouch slightly off to the side, Jack let out a deep guttural snarl and phased, meeting the vampire mid leap and raking his teeth down the vampire's side. It barely grazed stone hard flesh, this vampire was faster than Jack was, and it twisted away, ending up on the near side of the stream as Jack landed mid-water and twisted back around. A low warning growl rolled through his throat, but Jack stayed where he was.

In his head Sam let out a curse as he saw the vampire through Jack's eyes, but the fight was already over. The vampire was between Jack and Rico and at the disadvantage. This was done before it ever even started. Jack murmured a soft apology in his head to his Pack, assured them that their aid was not needed, and then phased back human, holding himself crouched and at the ready midstream. Rico sighed and brushed off his hat, which he had lost in his leap, but he was in the perfect position. With meters between them, the vampire was as pinned as he would have been in their grasp.

It had been a risky move, Jack deliberately letting himself be caught, but he had relied on the massive vampire leaping at the chance to kill him, had replied on Rico getting him out of it, had known that flanked, the vampire would state his business and walk away. If they allowed him.

It hadn't been the first time the cowboy and the Indian had played together to hold what belonged to them. It wouldn't be the last.

"Aww, look. You scared my horse," Rico muttered, stuffing his hat back down on his head as the sounds of the mare crashing through the brush could be heard beneath the thunder. "She's a quick one too. If she breaks a leg, I'm charging the bill to you."

"Charge it to the Volturi," the huge vampire smirked, making sure to keep one eye on the wolf behind him and one on the cowboy in front of him.

"You know, for a strongly established ruling society," Rico sighed mournfully as the rain began to lighten up suddenly, without warning. "They simply never seem to pay their bills on time."

The vampire went still, as vampires were prone to do when not hiding amongst humans, although his eyes gleamed. "And yet, they always collect that which is owed them," the vampire said as his rose red eyes flickered pointedly. "Although there are multiple ways to pay off the debt."

Rico mulled on that for a moment, then he smiled, and for the first time in a while, Jack saw Rico's fangs, even if just the tips. "Naw. No can do, my good man. So you run on back to momma and papa vamp and you tell them I'm holding out for a better offer. Jack, why don't you let our friend here be on his way? We've got a horse to catch and me, I'm feeling a little hungry."

Considering the fact that Rico was one of the few vampires ever created that had no particular problem with vampiric cannibalism, taking that little bit of blood that ran through the digestive system of a vampire after it fed, it was a thinly veiled threat. Rico wasn't opposed to killing or eating anyone, or anything, he just simply preferred to not offend his companion by doing so. It was something that Jack never forgot.

It was something the Volturi had never forgotten either.

"Kíka, hókwať," Jack snarled, stepping sideway to open a path as the vampire hissed threateningly. "_Xáxí_."

For creatures that drained others dry, they certainly didn't like having the same implied about them, and the vampire looked tempted to attack the cowboy standing lazily with his hands stuffed in his pockets. A drained vampire grew hard, stone like, unable to move and unable to defend itself. Very easy to shatter, very easy to burn. Jack knew. He himself had watched Rico do it.

"Better skedaddle like Jackie says," Rico chuckled, his fangs once more hidden. "Weather's about to get worse. Be a good feller though and give Aro my regards. But get on."

Still the massive vampire hissed again and leaned towards Rico.

"_Xáxí!_" Jack growled, and snapped his teeth as Rico took the smallest step forward. Between the two of them the vampire was outmatched and he knew it. Snarling in anger and disgust, he fled.

Rico watched him go and then spat on the ground. "Heya, Jackie. You know the rule about the bigger they are, the harder they fall?"

Jack's eyes were trained on the top of the incline, just in case his nose was wrong about the vampire being gone. Jack's nose being wrong had nearly killed him before, and he always double checked the direction of the winds now just to be certain of himself. Finally Jack turned back and nodded at the blonde vampire, who was still adjusting his hat.

"Well, that one ain't ever learned that rule. If you ever seen him without me or your Pack, you skedaddle too," Rico suggested, wandering over to the roan's saddle bags, where Jack kept and extra pair of jeans tucked away just in case. Rico tossed them to Jack without looking at him and swung up in the saddle. Jack never tracked from horseback anyways, not when it was raining and scents were hard to follow, and they had a horse to find.

Jack pursed his lips, considered asking his oldest friend a question, and then thought better of it. If Rico wanted Jack to know what that was about, he would say so in his own time. If it did not bring danger to his Pack, then Jack was content. He was more concerned that Rico's eyes had darkened, the way they always did when the vampire was tempted to kill something. Soon he would need to feed. Very soon.

They found the mare exactly in the condition that they had feared, limping and panicked, one rein broken off and the other tangled in the underbrush as the mare fought to get free. The bit had torn the side of her mouth as she struggled, and she was bleeding as her eyes rolled with fear. In his defense, the mare had started it, and Rico _had_ said that he was getting hungry. And he was a vampire. And vampires ate things. When Rico fed, Jack watched, not allowing himself to look away and pretend that his friend was anything other than what Rico was. Jack had enough confusion in his life, but this lesson he had learned long ago and it was engrained in him very deeply.

The ancient wolf knew that the vampire would always be a vampire, no matter their connection, no matter the face attached to the name. Jack knew and he watched Rico drink to remind himself once again. It was better this way.

* * *

Something was happening today.

Samantha didn't know how she knew it, but the feeling had been there ever since she had rolled out of Embry's bed that morning. They had taken their morning jog, and Embry had kept a decent pace but he hadn't pushed her past a light sweat, and when the rain had gotten so heavy that they were both drenched through and through, he had called off the run. He had taken her for breakfast in Forks before going to the dojo, had pushed her to eat something with more protein than the normal fruit and toast she preferred. Instead of their normal low speed heavier impact workouts on Saturday mornings, workouts that often went through the better part of the day when they weren't teaching classes, Embry had ordered Samantha to work on stretching and limberness.

Samantha didn't mind a light workout, welcomed them even, but this was the last Saturday she was going to have with Embry without him being exhausted and dozing between clients. She had hoped to get one last hard training session in when he wasn't completely worn out from extra patrolling.

When she told Embry this, he merely smiled and swatted her on the rear end, telling her to do what he said and to make sure she was as limber as she could be. And he watched her too, his contact covered eyes never missing a thing, looking for any weakness. He was worried about something, watching her in ways that said she was the cause of this concern, but Samantha didn't know the source or how to fix it. She had tried to ask him, but Embry was a wolf, was good at being evasive, and asked her again to just do what he had told her. So she did, because outside the dojo they were on even ground, but inside he was her trainer and her boss, and a damn good one too.

Even cryptic Embry sure beat the hell out of the Forks/La Push One Stop.

Still, Samantha had to wonder what was going on. Embry wouldn't even let her participate in his intermediate karate class demonstrations, and Samantha was much too smart to think he was coddling her. Most days he had no qualms about working her into the ground. Where Samantha would prefer to practice the harder moves to advance that way, Embry would have her drenched in sweat by the end of the day simply from drilling her into the mats with basics. It was his way of pushing her past her recent lack of coordination and timing, forcing her back to the beginning, and rebuilding her skills from the ground up. It sucked, but Embry was a perfectionist and he was using this time to fix a laundry list of things stylistically that she had picked up in her years of hodgepodge training, things that had always driven him nuts. Even the most infinitesimal changes in stance and approach and breathing and timing, things that his wolf eyes caught, things he wanted her doing his way and not her 'good enough but still kind of sloppy' way.

To be honest, Samantha was a scraper, willing to take whatever she had at hand and make the most of it to get the results she wanted. Embry Call, however, was a warrior through and through. There were things one did, and things one did not, no matter what the desired results. Maybe that was why it was so shaming to him that he had lost control of his wolf, he could only see the loss of honor in the hurt it had caused his Pack and his mate. But Samantha only saw a tough as nails man that she respected more than anyone else she had ever met, a man that took what shit life had given him and made the most of it.

Samantha was proud as hell of Embry. There weren't many people who really knew Embry Call that didn't feel the same way.

Samantha didn't really care if anyone was proud of her, but Embry's opinion mattered, and his opinion was that she was on the path of getting herself back to where she needed to be skill wise. And it was nice to see the pride in his eyes as she tightened down, increased her abilities, stopped dropping on her ass so much in practice. It was still happening outside the dojo, usually when she wasn't paying attention, but here was better. Embry was re-teaching skills that she had thought she had known, and as he changed her ever so subtly, it forced Samantha to retrain her muscles on how to behave. It was working how he had hoped, and Samantha's balance was slowly coming back, at least when she was fighting. Embry had promised that when she was back to where she had been, that he would sign her up for her first competition, but in truth that really wouldn't be for another month or two at least.

Which was what had her confused, because his behavior made her think that something was about to happen, and in a place like this, it meant that Samantha had a fight today. Maybe he had decided to go ahead and do so after all? Maybe he wanted her rested because she was fighting someone today and she didn't know it? Of course, La Push wasn't exactly teeming with women's MMA fighters, so if she was fighting someone, it would be because Embry called in a favor and got someone down here to train with her.

The newest imprint stopped asking and started doing what she was told, although by noon, Samantha was as limber as she was going to get. Instead of lunch, she got a protein bar and a bottle of water tossed her way. As she munched from her perch on Embry's desk, Samantha watched him finish up with the last of his midday kickboxing class. When the loud clanging bell signified that the final student had the front door close behind them, Samantha finally grinned at her boyfriend.

"So," she said cheerfully. "I'm as flexible and proteined up as I can be. Do I get to know who I'm fighting today, or is it still a surprise?"

Embry flashed her a grin even as he headed to the bathroom, presumably to take out his contacts. They greatly bothered his eyes, hampering his vision to the point that he had severe headaches nearly every night from the strain of trying to see past them. When he walked back to his desk, Embry leaned down and pressed his cheek to hers, nuzzling her jaw in wordless request. Baring her throat to him was almost instinctual at this point, and he bent his head, grazing the flesh at her pulse point with his teeth lightly. Then Embry pulled away and dropped down into his chair, scooting it over so that he was in front of her, looking up Samantha with an unreadable expression.

"Okay, here's the deal, Samantha," Embry exhaled heavily, and Samantha knew by the use of her birth name that whatever this was about, Embry took it seriously. For the briefest moment, panic hit her, a fear that he had driven deep in her gut, a fear that he was done with this, with her. Being a wolf dating their Alpha's imprint wasn't easy, it put pressure on the Pack, disrupted them Leah had explained, even if Jake and Embry seemed at agreement between themselves. He had left her once before, and it had wounded her deeply, as if she had lost more than just a lover, just a friend.

Embry made a soft crooning noise in his throat, and Samantha flushed. Hell, _she_ could practically smell her own worry, although she tried to cover it by taking a nice chunk out of her protein bar. It didn't fool him, and Embry touch her knee to bring her eyes up to his. He held hers for a moment, and then very deliberately dropped his own.

"Whatever you're thinking, don't, sweetheart," he said softly, his voice as close to submissive as it ever got around her. "I'm not hurting you today."

Because the truth of the matter was that he could lose to the wolf any day, or imprint any day, or she could change her mind and cave to the imprint driven pull to Jake any day, and they never knew and they didn't pretend it couldn't happen. It was easier to appreciate the things you have, knowing that they may not last. That being said, they didn't work as a couple by Embry passively cowering at Samantha's feet, that wasn't what either of them wanted, so almost immediately he raised his eyes back to hers. A moment of submission to remind her he knew his place and his place was with her. A life of dominance, because any weaker and he wouldn't be able to hold that place. Samantha, being human, didn't struggle with it as much. She'd give to Embry. Anyone else that wanted her submission had to force it out of her.

"Did we just play a dominance game?" she asked, grinning again, and Embry chuckled, settling back into his chair.

"Sweetheart, you played dominance games with all of us from day one," the wolf told her. "It hasn't been since recently that you paid any attention to it." Embry's grin widened and he winked at her. "You did what Leah told you from the very start, but you should see you and Jake together, Sims. You guys never look away from each other, playing for whose first. "

Samantha smirked and broke off a piece of her protein bar, offering it to Embry, who shook his head. "Easy, I'm first. He just hasn't figured it out yet," Samantha said cheekily. "Seth either. Anyways, you're changing the subject. What's going on, and why does it earn a 'Samantha' instead of a 'Sims'? And why are you giving me a power boost?" She waggled the wrapper at him.

Embry gave her a calculated look, and then nodded, once more serious. "Okay, here's the deal. The Pack, we've all been talking, and basically last summer was about as fucked up as it could have gotten." Samantha nodded, but said nothing. She didn't like to talk about that, she would be fine never talking about that, and only did so because she and Embry had enough misunderstandings and didn't need secrets between them. If asked directly she would answer questions about her time in the caves, although her memory got fuzzy a lot of the time.

"And we were thinking that it's clear that the imprints aren't as protected as we thought," Embry sighed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as he continued. "It's like…it's like we used to live in this bubble, with just us on the rez and the vampires around the rez. But when Jake decided to see what more was out there, it popped the bubble. There's a big ass world out there, and they know we're here. Unfortunately they know about Cassie and you and we think Claire as well. Emily and Kim have stuck pretty close to home, Sam and Jared the same, so if someone targets the imprints, we're pretty sure that Claire's at the top of the list because she's the most vulnerable. It makes us…"

"Nervous?" Samantha supplied, and Embry grimaced.

"Borderline sheer panic is closer to it," he admitted. "And there's only so much we can be around, and even when we are, Missoula proved that we can be overpowered. It would help to have a way for you older imprints to protect yourself, if only for a moment, just to buy us more time. And Jake and I…well…we figured out a way to maybe at least help you buy that time. Remember when he got all pissed off and hurt a few nights ago but he was fine by the next day?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, that was him and Seth, and…okay, I designed it but Jake and Seth were actually the ones that made it," Embry said, looking uncertain. "But listen, Sims, if I give this to you, you need to be _really_ careful with it. And Jake wants to see if you can handle it. If not, I've got orders to take it back no matter how much you like it. And I'm not really all the way on board, because I know you, sweetheart, I know how willing you are to fight. But I also want you to be safer. Shit, really I don't know if this is a good idea or not."

Samantha actually laughed at that and leaned forward as well. "Embry," she smiled prettily at him. "You're being cryptic on a level that's impressive for even a _wolf_. What the _hell_ are you talking about?"

Embry eyed her for a moment, and then slumped. "This," he said with a groan, the groan of one who really isn't sure if they are making the hugest mistake of their life. He reached over and opened the lowest desk drawer, the one he kept paid bills and his checkbook in. It was a drawer that Samantha always stayed out of, and therefore the perfect place to keep something nifty and shiny and new.

He held it up, slid it out of its casing, and then promptly slid it back in again, seeing her eyes gleam in what looked very close to hunger. Embry frowned and scooted his chair away from her a few inches. "Samantha, this is _not_ a toy. This is a very _very_ dangerous weapon, and it could hurt you really badly, and if you mistime it at all, it could actually kill you."

Samantha was silent a few moments, finished her power bar, and then she gave him her nicest smile. "Is that for me?" she asked in her most innocent voice, and Embry's frown deepened.

"Only if you show us that you won't end up poking a hundred holes in yourself with it," Embry muttered as the doorbell jangled, indicating that someone was coming into the dojo. Samantha had felt Jake heading this way, and where the Alpha went, so did the Clearwaters follow. Embry stood up as Jake gave her a smirk.

"I knew the moment she saw that," Jake told Embry in amusement, walking to the desk and briefly clasping arms with the other wolf. "Felt like a damn kid at Christmas time."

"I haven't let her mess with it yet," Embry said as Samantha waved hello to Seth and Leah and started trying to think of ways to steal the object in Embry's possession.

"You better like that, apple girl," The Alpha told her with a snort. "It hurt like hell snapping that tooth, and we didn't know for a fact if it would stay wolf or not. Or if mine would grow back or not. Thank Embry, as much as he's hemming and hawing about it, this was actually his idea."

Samantha slid off the desk, hooked an arm around Embry's neck, and pulled him down into a very appreciative kiss. Sighing, he didn't even try and fight her as she snuck the Pack fashioned weapon out of his hands.

"Thank you Embry, and yes, Jacob Black, I most definitely like this," Samantha declared, grinning as she slid the nine inch long wolf fang out of the resin hardened cedar casing carved to fit it perfectly. She more than liked it. As weapons went, this was really freaking cool.

The Alpha's tooth was different from the curved knives that Embry had there in the dojo to practice with. The tooth was oddly lightweight for something as strong as it was, as hard as anything she had touched, and sharp enough on the end that one slip was all it would take to hurt herself. But Samantha was very good at handling a knife, had grown better with practice over the years, and Embry had played to her strengths with chain style weaponry in designing it for her. It had taken a bit of work and Jake having to physically gnaw on the thing, but he had carved a deep groove around the thickest part of the tooth, about two inches from the end, and Seth had wrapped and tied two softened leather thongs to the groove, leaving about two feet of leather dangling. The ends were weighted by a pair of small flat hunks of cedar wood, hardened with resin and delicately carved by someone, although Samantha didn't understand what the carvings meant.

"I'm not sure why the straps had to be so long," Jake told her, "But rule one is that you can never use that thing alone unless someone supernatural is trying to hurt you, got it?"

"Rules Jacob Black?" Samantha chuckled, wandering over to the mats and allowing the tooth to dangle on its straps. "Since when did I ever play by your rules?"

"Since that's _my_ tooth," Jake growled a little. "Which I'll stuff back in my mouth if you can't handle it."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll manage," Samantha promised, sharing a smirk with Leah as she used the weapon exactly as Embry had known she would. With one snap of her arm, she had the tooth balanced lightly between her fingertips, the leather straps wound around her wrist. She held it for a moment, getting a feel for the weight of it in her hands, the give of the leather, and then she twisted her arm in a fast, wide circle, the tooth slicing out in a protective arc as she let the leather slide through her hands. It was softened enough to cause only a small amount of friction, chain would have been better, but vampires and wolves snapped things like chain without thinking. Something that gave always was harder to break.

Samantha thought about that even as she shifted the spinning weapon into her other hand and snapped it back towards her, the leather rewrapping up her left forearm now. She caught the tooth deftly and stared at the gleaming white bone between her fingers. Oh yes. She liked this thing a _lot_.

The wolves had gathered around, Embry close enough that he might have been able to grab the tooth in time to protect her if she had messed up…maybe. Jake whistled low between his teeth, Leah nodded as if that was what he had expected, and Embry tried to hide his cringe. Seth however, took one look at her grin, felt a deep chill go down his spine, and then shuddered.

"Hey Seth," Leah started to say, but Seth held up his hand and shushed her, even as he settled down in place on the floor.

"Give me a sec, Leels, I need to start this out with some proper instruction," the Beta stated dramatically. "So, in lieu of the fact that I'm pretty sure this is a very horrible mistake, I'm going to ask the ancestors for guidance. Jake, do you mind if I ask the ancestors for guidance? After all, my newest not yet little sister is about to die, and it's yours and Embry's fault."

Jake rolled his eyes but shared a smirk with Leah as Samantha narrowed her eyes at Seth. Embry considered whether or not it was too soon to remove the tooth from Samantha's hands.

The Beta hadn't ever asked the ancestors for guidance with anything, so he kind of winged it. Seth made sure to cover improper ancestor askance procedure by asking for ancestral guidance very loudly, so that they all could hear. And Seth made sure to include the fact that the Alpha probably needed to have them check his head, because giving one Samantha Carter something that made her even more capable of causing mass destruction couldn't possibly be a good idea in the least. When he was done thoroughly annoying and insulting Samantha as much as he could, Seth stood up, tugged her short ponytail and headed to the wall with the declaration that if Embry hurt her, Emb was about to get his ass whooped. Jake followed, smirking at Embry as Samantha blinked in surprise.

"So I'm fighting you?" Samantha asked curiously. She fought Embry all the time, so she had to admit, it was sort of a letdown.

Embry gave her a sexy smile as he took the center of the mats. "I'll try not to go too easy on you," he promised, making her raise an eyebrow. Embry always went easy on her, he was a wolf and she was-

He was a wolf and this was a weapon designed to fight a wolf. This wasn't like their normal fights, because if it was, he wouldn't have made sure she was as ready as possible. Instinctively Samantha crouched down, wishing she had been given more time to get used to this weapon, because to fight Embry at even half his speed and strength, she was going to need it to not get killed.

For a brief moment, Samantha remembered darkness, and a wolf that had shown her exactly how powerless she was, a wolf that the one in front of her had killed. The wolf of Samantha's nightmares had been weaker than her opponent, and as she unraveled and re-raveled the tooth, she looked at Embry through new eyes. His mottled black and chocolate brown ones gazed at her calmly, understanding why for the briefest of moment why her fear suddenly spiked.

She shoved it down nearly as fast as it had come, and not realizing it, Samantha gritted her teeth into a near grimace, her lips slightly curled back. She was tired of being the weakest one in the room, when she had always been the strongest. So it was that which made her take a step closer towards Embry and smirk at him as she readied herself.

"Don't hold back too much," she told her boyfriend, smirking. "There's no fun in that."

From the wall, Jake and Seth stood and watched with serious eyes, and Leah had positioned herself discretely near the door in case someone caught Samantha and Embry, well, doing what they were about to do. Samantha could feel the pull of the Alpha in the room, dragging at her senses, trying to take her attention, but she needed her attention on someone else at the moment. Embry was standing easily in front of her, but his eyes were watching her movements carefully. He _needed_ to be careful, she finally had the capability of causing some real damage to him, although it was a slim option at best. It was all about unpredictability, and there was a big difference fighting a knife in someone's hand and fighting a knife that could snap out and become a weapon three times as long.

Samantha wouldn't lie. It was a little strange knowing the man whose tooth this had once been, but it was a tool, a tool sharp enough that she could have sliced Chitakido's throat from ear to ear if she'd caught him unsurprised. Against a vampire or another wolf, she was just as screwed as she had always been, but even monsters could be taken unawares, and if any of the imprints had the speed and skill to pull it off, it was her.

The most recent imprint to the Pack grinned and flexed her fingers around the weapon. It was about damn time she have something to give her back some of the control that she had lost.

"I think Samantha's a little too excited about this," Leah chuckled from the doorway as she crossed her arms.

"You ready, Embry?" Samantha asked, shifting her stance and inviting him to come play with her. Embry just narrowed his eyes. As she shifted her grip on her weapon, Embry sidestepping and keeping one eye on her hand at all times, Samantha felt the Alpha's growing interest in this fight, in her actions. It was magic, not affection that bound her and the Alpha together, and Samantha wondered if this tooth was still full of that magic, the magic of their people. If it did, she wondered what that could mean. Her previously narrowed mind when it came to the supernatural was widening quickly, and she was pretty sure that just like the Alpha changed everyone else around him, Jake could change a simply tooth into something much more.

Maybe it was just sharp as hell and she was giving the guy far too much credit.

She had let her guard down, and she should never have done that because Embry was fast as hell and was in her face before she had seen him move, his hand closed over her wrist. "We're faster than you, Sims," Embry growled down at her. "Don't get cocky."

Samantha just smiled and threw her weight backwards, letting his grip on her arm balance her as she planted her right foot into his chest and twisted. He blocked her kick just before her left foot slammed into his temple, a blow that would have sent even him overbalance, and Samantha took a risk that he'd protect his face over keeping her arm. She rolled with the block, felt a moment of pain as her arm didn't roll when the rest of her did, and caught a glance of dojo mat even as she kicked her right foot into Embry's vulnerable nose. He cursed and released her arm to block the second kick, but it freed her, and Samantha twisted as she fell, already snapping her nifty new wolf deterrent out and behind her in an arc. She caught it before it hit her in the face as she came to her feet, shifting sideways so that she could see over her shoulder.

Embry didn't have a scratch on him, but there was the tiniest tear in his shirt, right above his navel, and he had been forced back several steps to avoid getting gutted. He was also grinning at her, his eyes sparkling beneath his chocolate colored contacts. Embry turned and looked at his Alpha, puffing up a little with pride.

"Did you see her catch that?" Embry bragged as Jake chuckled and shook his head. "I _told_ you she was good enough to handle it."

"I saw her almost skewer herself in the face," Seth offered, raising his eyebrow dubiously, although Leah barked out a laugh.

"Bullshit, Seth," the she-wolf called him out on it. "You just think this is a bad idea and don't want Samantha to have a new toy."

The Beta merely shrugged, but by the look on his face, Samantha could see it was true. "I think Bunny Lop has started knocking into someone every other day at school, and if she ends up falling on that thing, I'm not volunteering to pull it back out of her-"

"Watch it, Seth," Samantha growled, and Seth smiled cheekily back at her as she let the weapon dangle on its leather strings.

"Oh, I'd _watch_," he countered cheerfully. "I just wouldn't be the one to do it."

Samantha knew the rules, knew that Embry hadn't called the match, knew that any attack on either side was still fair game. The imprint was only a few feet away, but she knew she couldn't close the distance without him knowing. Even now Embry would read her body language as she thought about attacking. Out of the corner of her eye she could have sworn she saw him tense just the slightest in preparation. So she decided against it, decided that attacking a full grown and capable wolf was stupid, decided that she was done. Embry's shoulders relaxed just a hairsbreadth, the amount they had tensed and readied, as she decided that under no circumstances was she attacking-.

Jacob Black smirked as she changed her mind mid-thought.

Samantha snapped her weapon again, this time letting it wind up her arm, the sharp point of the tooth sticking out just past her elbow as she launched herself in a direct attack at her boyfriend, one so blatantly obvious in its lack of effectiveness that it took Embry by surprise. It was bad strategy, he would overpower her instantly in close quarters. Thinking that she would try to use the proximity to try and get him with her weapon, he brushed aside her attack and reached for her elbow, snagging the tooth and elbow in his hand and locking her to tightly to him with a confused and slightly disappointed expression. It was obvious that he felt she should have known better than this.

Samantha pressed the side of something small and very smooth against his neck, knowing she had won.

You see, Samantha had a secret weapon, one that Leah had procured for her from an equally dentally regenerative Rico at the beginning of the summer, when the vampire had broken off one of his fangs trying to bite through a diamond ring on a drunken dare from the she-wolf. It hadn't been meant as a weapon. Samantha had a deep fear of vampires, had been cut up by vampire fangs filled with venom when in Calgary, and Leah meant it as a way to help Samantha get over that fear. It wasn't a fear she wanted spread around, so she had readily agreed to Leah's request for silence about the gift. Carlisle Cullen had personally assured Leah that there wasn't a drop of venom left in the fang when he was done cleaning it. After carrying it around in her pocket for a week to get the leech stench off of it, Leah had taken Samantha to get the younger girl's ear pierced, an industrial piercing designed to hide the vampire fang.

Samantha had a hollow pink plastic barbell across the top of her left ear, and Embry never noticed that she had taken to keeping the extremely slender vampire fang tucked inside when she wasn't with him. It fit snugly enough to not fall out but after some practice, Samantha had learned the trick to snagging it out quickly. An inch and a half long, only a few millimeters thick, but it could have sliced deeply enough into Embry's jugular to make him be in very big trouble. That's why she kept the flat of the tooth against the side of his neck instead of the point against his throat.

Samantha hummed, wondering how much trouble she was going to be in for this with the other wolves, as Embry relaxed his hold on her arm, his surprise causing him to draw a thumb across the Alpha's tooth. It sliced in and Embry cursed softly and stuck his thumb in his mouth for a moment. When he pulled it out, the cut was already healing. The fourth's eyes were narrowed.

"That's a leech fang," he stated in a low, controlled voice, and Samantha nodded, pretty sure she was in trouble. Well, it was going to come out sooner or later.

"Rico's. No venom though," she added a little apologetically. Embry leveled a glare at the Alpha and Beta. Leah had apparently told them both before showing up today, because neither looked surprised at her winning strategy. Seth however, held up his hands in an appeasing fashion.

"Don't look at us," Seth declared innocently. "Leah was the one that gave it to her last summer, we didn't know. And I didn't even want her to have the _big_ one."

Jake pushed himself off the wall and walked onto the mats, his arms crossed as he evaluated Samantha and Embry both. "She took you by surprise, Emb," Jake decided. "Which is really the only chance she'll have at defending herself if something like Calgary happens again."

"It won't happen again," Seth grunted from the wall, and Leah rolled her eyes, moving to Jake's side.

"Don't be an idiot, Seth," Leah said, shaking her head. "We never know what'll happen, and we can't be everywhere at once. Normally I'd say this is overkill, but with Samantha's training she might be able to buy us some time if we need it. A lot can happen in a moment."

"A moment is all it would have taken to slice Chitakido's throat out," Samantha added in a dangerous growl, causing them to all look at her. She didn't talk about Calgary often, but when she did, she didn't hide from the fucker's name, the one that made sure she could barely sleep at night from the nightmares…nightmares that seemed a little too real than they should. "What? I had hours, I was close, and they never searched me. Not even once."

Jake nodded and glanced through the shaded windows. "It's easy to underestimate a human, and it would be nice to have an imprint that could hold her own. At least for a moment or two. What do you guys think?"

"Bad idea," Seth said immediately, still on the wall. But then he sighed. "Although if we do this, she's the right one to give them to. Personally I would prefer for these to be Pack weapons and not Bunny Lop's personal arsenal. She has a tendency to get…excitable."

Samantha ignored that, although she did make sure to flip Seth off after she slipped the fang back into her piercing.

"Leah?" Jake asked, and the she-wolf took a moment to decide her answer.

"I think that she's got a better chance of not skewering herself on accident then the others," Leah finally declared. "And like I said, her having an edge could buy us some time in a pinch. But if we do this, I want to make sure the other imprints to have one too."

Samantha had untangled her weapon from her arm and frowned. "No offense Leah, but this thing isn't exactly easy to use. I don't know Kim and Emily very well, but I'm not handing Cassie one of these things if my life depended on it. She'd end up making herself hamburger."

The she-wolf smirked at that imagery, but shook her head. "Not like that," Leah said frankly. "Something each of them can handle. If we could be taken out by silver bullets, I'd say give 'em guns, they're both great shots. But as is, we'll have to work something else out. No offense Sims, I know you took a hell of a beating last summer, but Emily and Claire are family, and Kim and Cassie are Pack. If we have a weapon to protect one of you, we need to make sure they have one to protect them too."

Jake was nodding in solemn agreement, even though Seth was sighing dramatically against his wall.

"I am _not_ telling Paul that we're giving his imprint a leech fang," Seth told the dojo. Jake raised an eyebrow pointedly so Seth amended that. "Unless specifically ordered by my wonderful and all-knowing Alpha, I'm not telling Paul." Then he grinned impertinently at Jake. "I _will_ tell Collin, though, that'll be fun."

The Alpha ignored that although he was smiling, and he turned to Embry, who as of today had officially become the acting third. "Emb? What do you think?"

Embry gazed at Samantha thoughtfully and then gave her a small apologetic smile. "I think my girl's badass enough to be able to handle these. I also think that she'll rely on them too much, try to fight and help us if something happens, and that's not a good idea. I think that the other girls will be able to know when to stay back and when to use them, but I don't trust them to handle anything this dangerous. I'm torn. I don't know."

Samantha frowned at him. "I'm not sure what's worse, Embry, the fact that you don't trust me to have situational judgment or that you don't trust them to be competent in protecting themselves. If it's a female thing-"

"Emily could shoot you between the eyes at three hundred meters, and Kim at two-hundred and forty," Embry chuckled, shaking his head. "We know, we made them practice on the pups with Simunition before Jake took off a year ago. They can protect themselves, at least against normal things."

Samantha blinked, tipped her head. "Simunition?"

"Fake rounds, blue, act like real ammunition without doing fatal damage," Jake told her with a wolfish grin. "We snuck them from the Forks police training supply room. They weren't using them anyways."

"Wait a second," Samantha snickered. "We're having a serious discussion about if I'm allowed to use wolf enhanced super power items to protect myself when you guys use wolf enhanced super powers to steal shit and shoot each other?"

The other thought about that for a moment and then simultaneously gave her wolfish grins. "Yep," they all said at exactly the same time, and Samantha laughed, hefting her wolf tooth.

"Fine," Samantha smiled, shaking her head in amusement. "Does the Alpha's imprint get an opinion?"

"An unbiased one?" Jake asked pointedly and she stuck his tooth between her fingers to mock flip him off.

"Yes, an _unbiased_ one," Samantha sighed, then she raised her arm to flip Seth off too just because she could. "Okay, Leah's right. It's not fair for one of us to have one of these things and no one else." She tapped her industrial pointedly. "If you guys can get more of these, I can teach the girls how to use them." She hefted up the Alpha's tooth. "Fang is bitchin', but I'm with Embry on that. I don't think that without a lot of training they can use him without hurting themselves."

Jake barked out a laugh. "Did you just name my tooth Fang? That's the least imaginative name I've ever heard."

"Fang thinks Jacob Black is a boring stupid name, but he's much too polite to say anything," Samantha stated cheerfully, winking at Embry as she walked over to his desk and slid her newly named Alpha tooth into its casing. She tucked it into the back hem of her workout shorts. "Anyways, my personal imprint unbiased opinion is that you don't make any more, but let me keep this on me."

Jake gazed at Samantha for a long time, and then he nodded. "Okay, the tooth that Samantha Carter is not allowed to name Fang stays with Samantha Carter. Samantha, I need you to realize that we're trusting you here. _I'm_ trusting you." Jake's face grew more serious. "My imprint or not, you're one of my Pack and the rules apply to you. I don't put Alpha orders on you, Samantha, because I know you'll fight it and it upsets you. But if you want me to trust you to this weapon, you need to be under the same limitations as the rest of the Pack. If you walk out of here, it's the same as anyone else."

"What limitations?" Samantha asked suspiciously, and Embry put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We can't hurt a human, Sims," Embry told her, a rule she already knew. "Hurting Emily devastated Sam, and he's never forgiven himself. Killing a human or maiming them severely is an action punishable by expulsion from the Pack by the Alpha, and killing or maiming an imprint is punishable by death. It's happened before, the elders told us, and the wolves fight to the death. But we're strong and accidents happen, like what happened with Sam. He couldn't expel or kill himself, not with an imprint that was hurt and a fresh Pack needing him to help them the way he didn't get helped."

"Asshole actually offered to have Jake kill him when Jake took over and made the order, just to set a precedence that it could never happen again," Leah growled, looking pissed just talking about it. Jake moved towards her without thinking, shifting so that their shoulders were brushing and Leah's growl softened. "It wasn't his fault, no matter what he thinks, there was no one to put an order on him the way that Jake puts on us."

The Alpha turned and locked eyes with Samantha. "You'll be ordered to not hurt a human by tooth and claw, Samantha, like the rest of the wolves are. The other imprints will get the same. But it will be an order," he warned her. "And in accepting that, it will bind you tighter to me. I won't force that on you, so it's your decision."

Samantha didn't like that, she was bound to Jake too much already, and the thought of being tied to him more made her glance guiltily at Embry. Embry was looking away, as if afraid to see if she would _want_ to be tied tighter to the Alpha, but when he realized she was looking at him, he gave her a soft encouraging smile. Samantha smiled in return, feeling the weight of Fang against her lower back. She wanted this, needed this to help her feel less helpless, the way she had felt so often since Calgary. It was something small, but sometimes small things made all the difference.

Jake moved to stand directly in front of her, holding her gaze. Seth had moved closer, and Samantha realized that she was surrounded by tall wolves on every side. For a moment, that made her breath catch in panic, but she shoved it down, shoved it away. The only one here that frightened her was Jacob, mostly because he controlled them all, could strip her of everything she held dear on his smallest of whim. The only thing he couldn't do easily was order her around, he had to put some weight behind it to accomplish that, she was too naturally dominant. So this was only going to work if she willingly submitted to him and his order.

Her instincts told her that was a bad idea. Her second set of instincts wasn't sure what the problem was. Blended, she decided that it was better to lose a little to someone who already had taken from her, and gain back more, then to stay stagnant where she was. Samantha was tired of being weakened in comparison to those around her. Time to get her strength back.

"Give me the order, Jake," Samantha said, a little smile playing around her lips. "And you're welcome to try and make it stick."

The Alpha rarely smiled at his imprint, but sometimes she earned it. With a cocky grin, he hit her with the hardest order he'd ever given any of the humans in his Pack. It may or may not have stuck, but if it did, for once, she didn't mind. It was all about free choice.

If there was anyone out there who understood how much that mattered, it was Jacob Black.

* * *

"Okay, Nessie, pick whatever you want. Bells said no bikers and Captain Crypt said no street walkers, so that leaves you a plethora of choices."

As she stared at the rows of clothing around her, Renesmee did her best to listen to the Alpha, his voiced fill with excitement. Renesmee tried not to judge people by the wording that they chose to use, but she had to admit that she was impressed with Jacob's use of 'plethora', the kind of word he tended to only use when he was feeling exceptionally happy. The Alpha was currently beaming at the Forks costume shop as if he was providing that which was most wonderful to Renesmee. Then he checked his cell phone for the time.

"However," he added, "You have approximately forty minutes to do so before we have to leave, if we want ice cream and greasy unhealthy food consumption beforehand. I have to patrol at eight tonight and still need to find out what the hell happened with Jack and those leeches earlier today."

Normally Renesmee would have said thank you to Jacob, or offered what information she may or may not have known, but to be honest, she was a little overwhelmed. Not only was she in town without one of her family there, she was getting a Halloween costume, which she had never done before. Jacob wouldn't tell her why yet, he just kept teasing her about it being a big surprise as he had driven her to town in her parent's car. It was much too rainy for his motorcycle, Jacob had insisted, but she had been pretty sure Jacob had only said it to get to drive their new Jaguar. Normally Renesmee would have been nearly ecstatic in her gratitude for the excursion, but this place was…so…so…so very…

"Smells like hell in here, huh?" the huge wolf smirked from beside her, his arms crossed and his own nose wrinkled a little. Renesmee gave him a confused look.

"It is customary for human clothing stores to smell like this?" she asked as politely as she could, and Jake chuckled, taking her hand and leading her past the rows of costumes.

"Clothing stores, Ness, not human ones," he told her quietly enough that only she would hear. Renesmee nodded, mentally chastising herself for the blunder. In the human world, all things were human and didn't need to be differentiated as such.

"Exactly, honey," Jacob told her kindly. "Although I'm going to look weird if I answer you and you're not talking. And the smell isn't all the time, just when people get wet and dry again and there's no soap involved. You know how Blondie was being all girly and whiny about wet dogs when I came over today? Kind of like that."

"You were a bit fragrant, Jacob," Renesmee felt the need to defend her aunt when Rosalie wasn't present to defend herself, and Jacob barked out a laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, well you try running around in all this and not getting a little soggy around the ears," he joked. "Now, what do you want? I used to be a big fan of being a ninja turtle, but you're a little short for ninja weapons."

"Daddy says that when I feel accomplished enough at the piano to pick up a second hobby, that I may train with Embry Call in martial arts, if he is willing," Renesmee said, and then she gave Jacob an uncertain little look. "Do you think that he would want to, Jacob? We would make sure to pay him."

Jacob patted her head before picking up a small foam bo staff, hefting it fondly. "Emb'll do what I tell him, and if you want to learn martial arts, then go for it. Actually, it might be good for you, Ness. If anyone needed a non-educational outlet, it would be you."

"Outlet for what, Jacob?" Renesmee asked when Jacob handed her the foam staff and took down a second.

"For all of that pent up inner child in you that is just _begging_ to get out, Ness," Jacob smirked, squaring off with her playfully. He tapped his bo staff against hers and it made her grin and tap his back. Jacob pretended that the blow was much mightier than it was, and he made a sound of agony and defeat as he staggered backwards. Renesmee giggled and bowed to him as she had seen done in books about Asian culture. "I didn't hit you that hard," Renesmee said, grinning as a woman and her son gave the still staggering Alpha a weird look.

"Hey, don't rub it in if your superpowers outstrip by own," Jacob chuckled after flashing the woman a grin that made her blush as easily as it made Renesmee blush. Obviously the Alpha knew its potency and used his smile to get himself out of trouble more often than not. "I was always better with a sword anyways. I was a Leonardo type of kid, born to lead and all that jazz. Guess I shoulda seen the whole Alpha thing coming," he added with a wry smile.

"You believe that your choice in television programs dictated what you were destined to become as an adult?" Renesmee wondered, poking through the ninja turtle outfits after she saw that the other people in the store were making free with rummaging through the racks. The few times that she had been shopping with her aunts, the stores would bring the clothes to Aunt Alice and Aunt Rose, but this didn't seem like that kind of place. Renesmee stepped over a Darth Vader mask and moved towards the next rack of costumes. Jacob followed her, still playing with the two bo staffs, although he was using them more as giant chopsticks as he tried to pick random objects up with them, including one giggling Renesmee.

"I hope television doesn't dictate what we're destined to become, honey, because I've seen what you watch on TV and it's boooring," Jacob drawled, but his eyes twinkled in mirth. "Naw, but I do think that what you like says something about who you are."

"What do you like, Jacob?" Renesmee asked curiously, and Jacob shrugged, skewering a ghost's sheet on his left handed bo staff.

"I don't know. I've always liked cars and bikes and stuff," he said, pausing to think about it. "These days I'm so busy I don't have time for hobbies. I like movies, though, and my mom used to have all these tapes of _I Dream Of Jeannie_, so I like watching those to kind of remember her and what she liked. Like how Seth goes fishing like he did with Jack, so he came remember Harry."

"Jack is your new wolf? The older one that lives in Hoquiam with Mister Rico?" Renesmee asked, and Jacob made a face.

"Mister Rico? Oh, kid, that is way too much respect for that…guy," Jacob shook his head with a snort, and Renesmee was pretty sure that 'guy' wasn't the word that Jacob had been initially intending. "And yeah, Jack's my new wolf."

"Will I get to meet him?"

"Would you like to?" Jacob asked, and Renesmee shrugged, not realizing that it was a gesture that she had picked up from watching him.

"I would like to meet all the members of your Pack, Jacob," she said softly. "They're important to you, so they're important to me as well."

His large callused hand patted her on the head again before casually ruffling her curls. "You're a good kid, Nessie," he told her with a kind smile. "And you're right, they all are important to me, Jack included. Jack's…he just hasn't had it easy, you know. But he tries so hard, kind of like you do, and it makes me want to do what I can to make him happy. Again, like with you."

"I am happy," Renesmee promised, and she didn't understand why he snorted and shook his head, but the Alpha promptly changed the subject.

"So right back at you kid. I told you all the awesome things that I like. What do _you_ like?"

Renesmee thought about it. There were lots of things that she liked, but she had a tendency of sharing those things with Jacob immediately, and it seemed redundant to repeat a liking that he already knew she had. So instead she thought about her more rare and secret of likings, and before she lost her courage, she blurted out the very first one.

"I like gummy bears."

"Good choice," Jacob said immediately, nodding in agreement. "Although I always preferred the worms myself." He snatched a rubber centipede out of a box of bug type toys and dangled it over her head, the centipede's little legs getting tangled in her curls. Renesmee sniggered and ducked away, and Jacob dropped the centipede on his shoulder to wander through the store with them. "Okay, what else?"

She had to think about it again, and then she grinned and said, "I enjoy learning more about lycanthropy versus Native American shape-" Her last words were muffled as Jacob covered her mouth quickly with his hand. He was laughing though.

"Sheesh! Ixsnay on the ape changingshay, Nessie!" Jacob shook his head, giving her a hug before releasing her. "You're gonna out me and the guys, honey."

It took her a little while to figure out that he was speaking in pig Latin, a language that Renesmee had once tried to research, unaware that it was not a true ancient language as her Uncle Emmett had insisted.

"Orrysay, Acobjay," she said politely, and Jacob grinned and put a pirate's hat on his head. He added an eye patch and brandished his bo staffs.

"Arrr, Nessie!" the Alpha declared, much too loudly and drawing pretty much everyone in the store's attention. "Ye should be sorry! Ye be swabbing the deck, or ye be walking the plank!"

"Technically, women weren't welcome on ships in the time period to which you are referring to, Jacob," Renesmee told him earnestly. "It was considered bad luck."

The Alpha sighed and lifted his eye patch. "Renesmee Carlie Cullen," he told her in his best grown up voice. "We are _playing_ and when we are playing, historical facts are not appreciated in the fun and festivities. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Jacob," Renesmee said immediately, but she giggled again when he stuck his tongue out at her and then pulled his eye patch back down.

"Good," he replied cheerfully, and then raised his voice. "Now then, I'll get you my pretty! You'll be walking der plank, or I'm not Jacob Blackhook!"

Renesmee opened her mouth, then decided that Jacob didn't really care if he was getting the witch from Snow White and a pirate captain. So she smiled and shook her head. "No, I refuse," the little girl made her own, not nearly as loud declaration. "I challenge you to a captain's duel, Jacob Blackhook, and after I have ground your bones into dust and baked them into my bread, you and parrot centipede shall walk the plank and I will rule the Seven Seas!"

"As?" Jacob prompted, and she blinked.

"As what, Jacob?" she asked in confusion, and Jacob leaned in to stage whisper in her ear.

"Your pirate name, Nessie," he reminded her, grinning. "Your _pirate_ name."

Renesmee realized her mistake. "Oh! Okay….Ummm…I will rule the Seven Seas as…Nessie O'Nessie?" Okay, so it wasn't the best pirate name, and Jacob seemed to find her inability to be more creative extremely amusing, but it was the best that the little girl could do. The dueled and in the end were nearly banished from the Seven Seas when the store manager was forced to ask them to keep it down, and after Renesmee had walked the plank to the restroom and back, the former Captain Nessie O'Nessie and Captain Jacob Blackhook found themselves back to looking at costumes.

"So pick your poison, kiddo," Blackhook told her. "What do you want to be? Tinkerbell? Peter Pan? A ghoul with all this black hangy stuff all over it? A princess? A…okay, I think that's too close to both a biker and a street walker. Oh, this is cute."

Renesmee peered at the packaging he held up, which showed a little girl about her age in a caterpillar costume. It was green and black and Renesmee wondered if it would offend Jacob if she declined.

"The silence tells me no," Jacob chuckled, solving the problem for her. "Girls do that, I've noticed. Samantha gave Embry the silence a few days ago, and it was pretty funny watching him squirm. Guy's got it bad."

"Jacob? May I ask a question?"

"You don't actually have to ask before the question, Nessie," Jacob told her, picking up and discarding a 1960's style hippie outfit. "You wouldn't want that one, would you?"

Renesmee shook her head, causing her rain frizzed bronze curls to bounce. "No thank you, Jacob. My question is why don't you talk about your imprint very often? The other wolves speak of theirs much more regularly."

"That, little girl, is a very good question and one that I'm not required to answer," Jacob replied cheerfully, although he looked and sounded more Alpha than he usually did, even as he tried to balance a bo staff on top of his head. "But I will say this. If you think about chocolate cake, and you talk about chocolate cake, and you stare at chocolate cake long enough, you're going to want it. Even if you never really wanted chocolate cake in the first place. The power of suggestion is pretty damn strong kid, and it can work both ways. I think. I hope. Anyways, I never watched anything on television when I was little about growing up and wrecking my brother's life. I'm not planning on starting because of some bullshit-" Jacob cut himself off and looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, Ness. That's not stuff you need to hear or worry about. We can talk more about imprinting when you're older if you're still interested."

Renesmee nodded in understanding. Some subjects weren't age appropriate, and for her, waiting until she was older didn't particularly mean much. That could mean a month or two, or sometimes only a year later. By random chance she glanced up, and then she smiled. Jacob caught the smile and reached the rack above her head, the one that she never would have been able to reach if not for him.

"You like this costume, Captain O'Nessie?" he asked, handing her the top bag, one that looked to be much too large for her diminutive size. But she liked the cover, and the little girl in the costume looked remarkably like her.

"Do you really like it, Jacob?" Renesmee asked, a little shyly. It wasn't a very grown up costume, but Jacob was giving her an encouraging smile, and he was the last person that ever wanted her to act more grown up anyways.

"I think it's adorable, kid," he told her truthfully. "And I think that you'll get tons of candy and you'll have to split it with me because you love me so much."

It was true, but she knew he was working her, and Renesmee couldn't help giving him the disapproving look that always made him start tickling her. In the end it was decided, Renesmee would be a butterfly for Halloween. Jacob bought her the costume and an ice cream and drove her back home in her daddy's car, which would smell like wet dog for the next year to his sensitive nostrils. Then Jacob told her the big surprise. He was taking her to a real party on the reservation, a Halloween party, her first one.

So excited that she could barely stand it, Renesmee quietly sat in her room and looked at her costume hanging on the closet doors, her hands folded in her lap.

She really hoped that the others at the party liked butterflies.

* * *

A/N- "Kíka, hókwať" means "Leave, non-Indian" and "Xáxí!" means "Now!". I'll have the second half of the chapter out in a couple days. :)


	6. Chapter 4 Part Two

A/N Opps, I meant to have this up earlier this morning, but I slept in too late. Sorry! Please don't feel like you have to review. It's just the wrap up to the last chapter. The next chapter will be the Halloween party and the imprint.

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Four (Part Two)

* * *

The rain had been pouring for a week straight, and it was starting to cause problems. The hospital that Renesmee's grandfather worked at had flooded and caused a serious backload in surgeries, along with the issue of trying to find rooms for patients needing care, and medical emergencies that shouldn't involve wading through two inches of standing water. The Forks school system had closed, and so had several businesses suffering water damage. Some of the elderly had to be moved from their homes until the flooding had receded, and Renesmee's other grandfather, Charlie Swan, had made it clear that the citizens of Forks needed to stay off the roads until the rain slowed enough that the drainage systems could keep up.

No one was quite sure how flooded La Push was, but when Charlie had called Billy Black and asked if they needed any help, Billy had just chuckled and said that the reservation was fine. No worries on their end. Seth had told Renesmee on one of his random but always appreciated phone calls, the ones where the Beta called just to talk to her, that there was flooding on the reservation too. However the rez had a policy of taking care of their own and didn't accept outside help unless in extreme emergencies. Renesmee had been confused as to why they would take that standpoint, but Seth had just laughed and told her that one day she would grow up and learn that the Quileute were the greatest of all those that had ever walked the earth. It only proved that the pale faces were as ignorant as they had always been that they hadn't figured it out after all this time.

It took her a day to figure out that Seth was teasing her, after her father had come home to find her deeply concerned about her recent discovery that Seth Clearwater was prejudiced in regards to ethnicity. After explaining Seth's joke to her, Edward had a fine time in convincing the Beta that Renesmee thought that he was racist, which earned the little girl a very distressed and soaking wet Seth on their doorstep, determined to convince Renesmee that it wasn't true. Edward Cullen had a very good poker face, most vampires did, and it took Seth at least fifteen minutes of heated discussion with Edward before he realized that the vampire was pulling his leg.

Seth found that to be very mean.

Renesmee had stayed in the kitchen and giggled around her pale pink Frosted Flakes as Seth had lectured Edward about how Seth was patrolling, about how Seth had made their new wolf Jack come all the way from Hoquiam just to cover Seth's patrol so that Seth could come over there, and that Edward was quickly losing his "Coolest Vamp" status. She had been giggling because Seth had been having a great time making a fuss while simultaneously raiding their refrigerator and procuring four bowls of not pink Frosted Flakes. Every so often Seth had given her winks between wounded looks directed at Edward, making her giggle even more. Her father had spent the rest of the night teasing Seth mercilessly, her mother and her aunts joining in for the fun of it, and it was times like these that Renesmee liked best, when her family and the wolves seemed to forget that they were allies and acted as if they were just friends.

That night she had watched _The Clique_ again, because for some reason Jacob didn't want it back to watch himself, and it was nearly early morning when she finally curled up in bed, hugging her butterfly outfit that was still in its bag and listening to her father and Seth continue laughing and joking downstairs, their deep male voices every once in a while interrupted by bell-like female ones. It lulled her into a contented sleep, but right before she drifted off to dreams, Renesmee made sure to pray for her family, and for the La Push wolves that were working the dangerous fishing boats in Alaska right now, and for the new wolf that was nice enough to be wet and cold while Seth was warm and dry and making Renesmee's evening so much better.

She finally decided that God wouldn't be too mad at her if she prayed for a friend, so that one day she could be in a kitchen with someone she wasn't bound to by family, and sit and laugh with them the way her daddy and Seth Clearwater did.

A week and a half into the unceasing rain, her Aunt had a vision.

A lot of the time they told Renesmee what those visions were, but some of the time they didn't, and this one had them all very upset, earning a call to the La Push Alpha. Her grandfather was rarely anything but kind and sweet, so it worried Renesmee when he sat very still, very cold with anger all the way up until the Alpha arrived, the Beta and Embry at his sides. None of them looked particularly happy to be there this time, so Renesmee made sure to stay out of the way up in her bedroom.

She was pretty sure that she had figured out their new patrol schedule based on the comments that Jacob and Seth had made, and the fact that Jake had growled in annoyance at her grandfather when the trio showed up. The Pack was stretched thin enough, the Alpha said, without having to come here in the middle of the night on an official capacity for something they already knew. Leah was tired and should be in bed instead of running another double shift with Sam to cover for them, and they were wearing out Jack's paws running him back and forth from Hoquiam so much, not that the new wolf ever complained about it.

Renesmee thought the new wolf sounded very nice, and she wondered if he would ever want to meet her. Her circle of people that she knew was smaller than those of her elders, and except for Jacob and Seth, the wolves tended to keep their distance unless the whole Pack was at the Cullen home. She understood why. There would have never been a need for a treaty if the wolves and the vampires weren't natural enemies. But Jacob's new wolf lived with a vampire, so maybe he wouldn't be as predisposed to dislike her the way the others were.

Her grandfather was saying something very clearly about the Cullens holding up their side of the alliance, and Jacob was growling back in return, so she put her earphones in and turned up the volume to her i-Pod. Renesmee hummed along to Bach and drew pictures of her family as they had been back when they were still human, and because she was still a pirate, if only in secret, Captain Nessie O'Nessie made sure to use brown construction paper. In between thoughts about how no one would ever be able to draw _her_ like that, Renesmee had never been and would never be human, she imagined meeting Jacob's newest wolf. In one of her imaginings, she thought about him telling her that she was very nice for being a half vampire, and she showed him her bunnies in the pen behind the house, and he thought that her poems were very interesting indeed. He chuckled much the same as Jacob would have when she teased him for liking Emily Dickinson more than she did, but he understood why a little girl would enjoy Edgar Allen Poe. Death, after all, was as much a part of her life as life was.

The wolves left, this time without saying goodbye, and if Jacob hadn't cursed halfway to the tree line and jogged back, making a running leap to her window and giving her a little wave through the glass before dropping back down again, her feelings might have been hurt. But he did, so they weren't, and Renesmee drew Jacob back when he was human too. She made sure to give him a big smile, because everyone always murmured how, for as good of an Alpha as he was, Jacob had never wanted to be a wolf. Her mother and father decided that they should stay the night at the big house instead of the cottage because of the rain, at least that's what they told her, and everyone went downstairs to talk in voices too soft for her to hear.

Knowing that maybe she really didn't want to know what was going on, Renesmee drew her thoughts, drew a patrol schedule that she was pretty sure was accurate unless Jacob and Seth were misspeaking when they talked to her, and then she laid all of her thoughts out in a row and pretended to walk the plank to the bathtub in her bathroom. She had filled it with bubbles for her bubble bath that night, and was very tempted to be pushed without regard or remorse into the Seven Seas, which were particularly bubbly that day, but she decided instead to drop like a stone and slip into her bath without a splash or a sound.

Somewhere along the line Captain Nessie O'Nessie became the Bubble Queen of Swan Lake, and when she asked very politely, her voice carrying easily to the vampires gathered downstairs, her mother came up and put a movie into the DVD player connected to the small television set into the bathroom wall. It was ballet, something her grandmother Esme loved to watch, and this one was particularly interesting because the female lead of the Swan Princess was being danced by one of the imprints in Jacob's Pack. Renesmee watched and blew the bubbles off her nose when they slipped from the top of her head, thinking that humans weren't perfection incarnate like the vampires were, but sometimes they could get very close.

The reason that they had this ballet performance was because Emmett had found it hysterical that the imprint had managed to run Renesmee's father over with her car, twice in fact, and had found the footage to tease Edward with. Joking aside, watching it made Renesmee feel closer to Jacob's Pack, a group of people so tightly tied to each other, kind of like a clique. Even more like friends. And in watching Ksanochka Fedorova dance, Renesmee could close her eyes and pretend she was dancing with Paul's imprint, the Bubble Queen becoming friends in proxy with so many as she spun at the Swan Princess's side.

The Bubble Queen got tired, she wasn't very used to playing, and so she made sure that all the bubbles were gone when it came time to go to bed. She made sure to bow to the Swan Princess and Mister Rico, who had accompanied The Bubble Queen and Jacob's new wolf to see the show. And then she once more pulled the covers up to her nose and dreamed.

This time when Renesmee walked the plank, no matter how much she splashed, there was no one to notice as she drowned.

* * *

Jack was too close to the coven's territory. It was the second time this week.

He angled his path even as the familiar burning scent of vampire sank into his nostrils. The ingrained instincts from so long ago were just as strong as they ever were, with only Rico's scent familiar enough to not cause him instinctive tensing of fur covered muscle. But Jack knew better than to get any closer to the Cullen coven's hunting grounds, which unfortunately made him have to take the long way back to the reservation. Treaty or not, the Cullens had never met him in an official capacity, and therefore he needed to keep his distance until with one of the leaders of the La Push, preferably Jake. Jack knew some of their scents, the one he smelled was the blonde doctor that had treated his Alpha down in Mexico, but Jack had been so full of self-disgust for allowing his new Alpha to get hurt that he had been less than cordial.

Jack got on better with vampires than almost any wolf out there, but even he had his limits and tended to prefer to stay away when in a bad mood.

The ancient wolf was actually in a very good mood right now, the rain that had flooded this area of the state had finally slowed to a warm drizzle, and while the lands were still super saturated, running in drizzle beat running in downpours any day of the week. Plus with less rain Jack's scarred nose worked better, allowing him to smell past the package he carried so delicately in his teeth, trying not to slice the clear plastic bag to ribbons and cause the items inside to get wet.

The trees here were thicker and better to keep the remaining rain off of him and his bag, but Jack shifted outwards and away, and the vampire who had been keeping track of his path slipped deeper into the Cullen's territory. Jack caught the faintest scent on the breeze, something that smelled far better than a vampire, and pushed his steps out even further, stretching out his legs to increase his smooth stride. It did not do to be a wolf near a coven with a child or a newborn to protect, treaty or not. If the child was out hunting, then he needed to be out of scent of them for safety's sake, unless he planned on hunting them himself. And since he did not, Jack had no business here.

He did, however, have pressing business in La Push. A blonde was waiting, and if there was anything that Rico had taught him, it was that most blondes preferred not to wait.

Even though he had spent most of the day running, Jack stretched out his strides even more. Blonde or not, he never wanted any of his Pack to ever have to wait on him. They were, after all, his Pack. And the newness of that, along with the welcomed softening of the ancestors' voices in his head, the softening that came with the heavy handed presence of his new Alpha in his mind, hadn't come anywhere close to wearing off. They could run him until he dropped from exhaustion, but Jack knew he would still be happy for it. They were Pack, and he was theirs. Everything was finally becoming as it should be again.

Jack had been running the weekday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM shifts with Leah and Sam, along with Sunday daytime patrols, and Jack felt pleased that he had been allowed to run with the Pack's previous Alpha and their she-wolf. The ancient wolf continued to be apologetic about his inability to cross the borders, but Leah didn't mind when it came to patrolling. Jack's continual passes along the outside of the landlocked parts of the reservation meant that she and Sam had the smaller sweeps, meaning that to keep pace with Jack, they didn't have to run as hard. Normally the wolves would trade off every third pass so that each would get their opportunity to run the shorter and longer sweeps, and often Jack could feel Sam's guilt about the fact that only Sam and Leah were switching off. Leah however thought that it was just fine getting to run smaller sweeps, and the she-wolf reminded Sam regularly that Jack was welcome on the reservation. He just had to be willing to step across.

Jack was pretty sure that the she-wolf was mistaken. It couldn't be that easy.

Running with Leah and Sam was calming for Jack, the she-wolf enjoyed teasing the fifth and more gently teasing Jack, and despite her ribbing, the fifth seemed to enjoy the attention as much as Jack did. Eight hours of running when not asked to cover additional patrols gave the three a lot of time together, and it was good for Jack. The fifth's mind was quiet, Sam had been a wolf for a while now and was starting to learn to control his more random of thoughts, and that quietness carried over to both Jack and Leah. The fifth followed Jake's orders directly and never allowed his mind to drift to those things that Jack's Pack wished he would or could tell them. Leah's fondness for both of her Packmates was obvious, Jack's more shy feelings of affection towards them the same, and under Sam's protective leadership, their patrols ran smoothly and without incident.

In truth, Jack had to work tonight at the bar tonight flipping burgers and would have enjoyed a few hours of rest before doing so. However the Third's mate had sent him a request through Collin, a request that Collin explained when the pups came on patrol with Jake. Paul had wanted her to talk to Jack about her experiences in Russia, something that she had refused for reasons of her own, but if Jack was willing to meet her at the border, she would like to see Jack just to see him. Cassie had apparently missed him, and seeing that she couldn't drive to Hoquiam to see him, Cassie had wondered if Jack would be willing to come to her. That was, if he didn't mind.

To be honest, Jack was confused as to why he would mind, she was Pack and of course he wanted to be around her. He wanted to be around them all, there didn't have to be a reason why, although Collin had said that with Paul gone, Cassie was starting to get especially lonely. Jack didn't care why one of his Pack wanted to spend time with him. The fact that they wanted to spend time with him was enough. But he asked if Cassie would be willing to wait for an hour or so for him to go do something first, and Collin had agreed to pass the message on. Today the rain had lightened enough and the temperature warmed enough that the slender imprint wanted to get out and get some fresh, if slightly damp, air. Out of all the wolves and imprints, with possibly the exception of Embry, Cassie's movements were the most controlled by the Alpha and even to go to the border with wolves patrolling all around her, she had needed Jake's express permission. The Alpha loved her as he loved all his imprints, but it was clear that no one particularly trusted her.

In the soft recesses of his mind, where his innermost thoughts sometimes managed to stay private, Jack wondered if his Pack understood how deeply being distrusted could wound someone. In the louder places of his mind, his dead Alpha decided that wounds were all deep, no matter how big or small. If given enough, they could take anyone to ground. The living Alpha wondered why he could hear an echoing behind Jack's thoughts, as if missing something, and Jack had no way to explain that only he could hear the dead wolf in his head. So he thought again of how much he liked his new Pack, and the living Alpha was pleased even as the dead Alpha woofed sleepily and laid down to nap.

True Alphas always were happiest when their Packs were happy as well. And because of Jake, this was the happiest that Jack had been in a very long time. The living Alpha was content to know it, the dead Alpha content to accept it, and Jack more than content to live it. Truly, life was good.

The tiny blonde imprint was waiting for Jack as he trotted up to the soggy borderline, although she must have grown bored because she was currently doing a handstand against one of the smaller redwood trees, its wide branches and one of Paul's old coats keeping the soft mist from her skin. Because she carried so much Eastern Slavic in her diluted Quileute blood, Cassie had always been significantly paler than the rest of them, but her pretty little face had turned red from the blood rushing to her head. She was on the outside of La Push, Jack's side, so the brindle wolf dropped bag he had so very carefully carried all the way here on the dying autumn grass and padded up to her.

The Third's imprint had always been on the thin side, but Jack had lived through many very lean seasons and had watched people he loved starve to the point of illness and sometimes death. Being a wolf who could travel further and hunt larger prey easier didn't mean there was always prey to be hunted, and when the salmon didn't come…It used to be a sign of a tribe's prowess if their women and children were healthy enough, fat enough, to not see their ribs and hipbones protruding. After all, the men ate first, they needed the strength to hunt and fish, and if there was plenty afterwards for the women and children, well, it was a good day indeed.

Jack had no children of his own, his only get had turned to nothing in a dead woman's belly, but he had often thought that he would be hard pressed to eat and watch his family starve. But then again, Jack had always preferred women who could fend for themselves, so the need to keep himself healthy first and foremost to ensure their survival was less pressing. Even still, Jack couldn't do it. Apparently the Third couldn't either. It was common knowledge that Paul was one of the poorest of all the wolves, and his time spent in Europe tracking down his mate and the resulting loss of his job had left the wolf in dire straits financially. The need to provide for his mate had pushed the wolf towards the only job that he was able to get at the moment, but Jack was aware how deeply his Third had worried about leaving. It had been in his thoughts every time Paul had been phased, no matter how many times the Alpha and the Beta told him not to worry.

If it hadn't have been presumptuous of him, Jack would have told Paul not to worry either. His mate would be kept safe here, as safe as they had always kept her even when she was under direct attack. Jack himself had protected her then. Jack would protect her now.

The thought made him wag his tail, even as he dropped to his belly on the grass, waiting for her to notice the upside down pony sized wolf. She did and grinned, trying to give him a little wave, and almost losing her balance. Jack wagged his tail harder and scooted playfully on the wet grass until he was only a few feet away. Some of the mates had never grown comfortable with their second forms, but the Third's mate looked and smelled completely relaxed in his presence, so Jack rolled over on his back so that he was upside down as well, and his tongue lolled out of his open mouth as he continued wagging his tail. The Third's mate laughed, a soft breathy sound that pleased him, so Jack rolled over completely and this time when he was upside down, he scratched at the air with one paw, waving hello in return.

Cassie tried to wave at him again, but the arms to Paul's coat were long and in her way, and she only ended up losing her balance and tumbling. But Cassie laughed as she hit the muddy ground, and the ground wasn't so much mud as it was Jack's warm furry back. It took her a while to stop laughing, and by that point the Alpha had sighed and asked Jack to please not let Cassie break her neck doing gymnastics. Paul was strung out enough right now without having a quadriplegic imprint when he got back. Collin thought that would be awful, Paul being imprinted on only a functional head, and Brady snickered in disagreement. Actually, if Paul didn't have to worry about...

Jake thought they should all patrol and not think a damn thing. So they did, and they didn't, and Jack tried hard not to think but it was difficult when the Third's imprint had discovered the bag of cookies he had brought with him. She was too polite to eat them without permission, and was currently speaking about the difficulties in wolf/human communication, and her status as an ambassador in such areas, and how political figures enjoyed rights not given to most average citizens, and how averageness was perfectly fine, but if she was to be given preferential treatment she would prefer such treatment to be dietary in nature. Jack had lost her at the ambassador part, so he whined in confusion and wagged his tail harder, and in his head Collin struggled against Jake's order of silence enough that the Alpha relented and lifted it momentarily. Cass wants a cookie, Jack, Collin translated.

Oh. That was fine. He _had_ brought them for her after all, although she was Pack and if hungry, she had open access to what fed him as well. Actually a little feeding up would do her some good.

It would be easiest to phase and talk to her in his human form, but for some reason Jack thought it would be a better idea to stay like this. The Third had pressured his imprint to talk to Jack, and in wolf form, it was impossible for Cassie to feel like he was pressuring her back. So Jack merely wagged his tail, it was getting a lot of use today, and watched her as she explained on and on and on the wonders of things that he had long since lost track of, and finally when she had talked herself out, Cassie looked at Jack with big hazel eyes and offered him a belly rub in exchange for a cookie.

Collin thought that was a really fucking bad idea, and that Jack better keep his hind legs crossed because if Jack showed Cass his puppy parts, they were having words later. Brady reminded Collin that only Collin had puppy parts, and the rest of their parts were full grown, as Leah had recently and happily discovered. Too bad Collin was still a puppy down there, because—

Jake shut their thoughts off in annoyance. He didn't want to think about Leah having sex with anyone, and since Cassie had been occupying herself lately with trying to sneak peeks at them all naked and phasing, she wasn't going to see anything she wasn't determined to see eventually anyways. Did they know Cass had caught Sam yesterday?

Brady thought that was funny, because she'd caught Brady last week, and Leah on Tuesday. Collin sighed, admitting that she was a sneaky little attack imprint, and Collin felt it was only fair to warn Jake that the Alpha was next. Jack thought that his new Pack was very sexual, but he'd do his best to keep up, and the Third was a lucky wolf indeed, because she was very good at rub scratches. Collin was planning murder, but Cassie was eating a cookie and telling Jack all about the day she thought he might have had, since she couldn't ask him anyways.

Jack thumped his tail in acknowledgement of her suppositions, and, after requesting and receiving Jake's permission, very carefully stood up and circled the seated imprint three times before collapsing back down with a contented huff. Cassie was small enough that he could rest his nose on his hip and encircle her completely and still not touch her. The imprint made a happy noise and cuddled up to his side, which was kind of what Jack had been hoping for. He was warmer than the Third's coat, and even though the rain was only the slightest mist now, the flush was still on Cassie's cheeks. Perhaps she should have stayed inside? His thoughts blended with her commentary, and Jack tried to pay more attention to what the Third's mate was saying.

"-but the worst of the rain is over, and I promised Collin just an hour. He's been very smothering, but I suppose any attention is good attention when you care about the people giving the attention to you. Hey, Collin's patrolling and he can hear what I'm saying, right?"

Of course he could, and Collin wasn't smothe-Jake wished sometimes that it was as easy to make Collin shut up as it was the rest of his wolves. Collin was acting like Seth and it was annoying. One Seth was enough. Collin would have thought something, but his Alpha had him on mute. Brady rather enjoyed their Alpha's ever increasing mute button.

Jake was pretty sure the mute button was broken, or the controller needing a new battery or two.

Jack found it very amusing that Cassie was peering into his eyes and glaring, right after making sure that both Jack and Collin knew that her glare was for the pup. And then she curled back up against Jack's side. She was quiet for a while. Well…okay, she was quiet for a while for Cassie without Paul there, which meant for a couple minutes. Turning her cheek into Jack's brindled side, she tucked her knees to her chest and instinctively Jack curled around her tighter.

"It's nice though that Collin's willing to hang around," Cassie told him as the clouds began to lighten. "I told Paul it wasn't necessary but…it's strange because I know that you guys are all around and the reservation is so small, but in the middle of the night it gets really quiet. And dark. Dark and quiet and I'm used to bright and loud. Even just having Collin there sleeping in the same room makes it easier, there's something else to listen to besides myself breathing. You know what I mean?"

Jack whined softly because he did know. How many nights had he stayed awake, wishing that there was someone, anyone to hear breathing next to him? Even after Rico had come around…

The Alpha was like a balm against the jagged edges of his soul, wordlessly reminding him that this was _now_, and _then_ was over. Jack wasn't alone in the now and neither was Cassie, no matter how quiet the night was for her. However the Third was gone, would be for several more days before they could come home for a brief rest, so the balm for the imprint's soul was gone. So Jack used what he knew of her other balms and he nudged the bag of cookies in her hands carefully with his cold damp nose. Cassie smiled and offered him one and after he very carefully took it from her hand, she fell to the rest of the cookies, although she was making sure to eat only half of the total amount he had brought and to feed him the rest.

The wolf munched and she talked and Jack paid attention, but once she left her thoughts about if wolves couldn't eat chocolate the way that dogs couldn't and if the whole Calgary thing could have been avoided with a large enough Hershey's bar, she branched out into a thought process involving what could happen to the world's economy if no one was allowed to have mass quantities of sugar anymore and if sugar would be the new diamonds and everyone would wear candy necklaces to the opera on strings of platinum and gold. When she dipped into the likelihood of setting sugar jewelry into gold settings, and economy collapse from hot sticky days where everything of value melted, Jack was so confused that he merely listened as she babbled, eating her cookies one by one.

She slid into Russian a couple times as she snuggled into his warmth. Russian was one of the many languages that Jack could speak with a moderate fluency, Rico had grown bored a few years ago and purchased several language courses on audio tape and had badgered Jack mercilessly into learning with him. Even after a thousand years of life, Jack was relatively certain that it was time not well spent, although as his brain translated, Collin grew unhappy. Cassie was much more open in Russian, and so Jack listened even as he failed to understand, although Collin was learning more from her words than Jack ever would. The ancient wolf whined and wagged his tail at appropriate intervals, and then when the imprint fell into silence, her eyes drifting closed because of the wolf heated air around her was making her groggy, Jack woofed softly, put his nose against her ribcage, and kept watch over her sleeping form.

When her hour had passed, Cassie's wristwatch chirped a timer and she yawned sleepily. She told him goodbye, thanked him for the cookies and then bundled up in Paul's coat again, her small hands lost in the long sleeves. She limped a little but seemed happy enough as she gave a little wave and began walking home. Collin adjusted his patrol so that in he could follow her home, better safe than sorry, and Jack rose to his four paws, his jaws stretching into his own and very canine yawn.

The rain stopped.

The rain stopped even though the weatherman had predicted steady if light precipitation for the next three days, and the psychic vampire had thought that the vampire Neel would come through during the middle of the night instead of the daytime like it was now.

The rain stopped just as the stench of vampire burned Jack's nostrils, the wind shifting and giving away its position as it crossed the border, making a dart through the reservation from the north. Jack didn't think, he simply acted, because there might have been two wolves between the imprint and the vampire, but there was an imprint between the vampire and himself, one that belonged to Jack's Third, and he was across the border and running for her before he could think about it.

An earthshaking howl sounded through the reservation, the Alpha wanted this fucking leech _dead_, he was tired of Doc Cullen chewing his ass over it,, and Jack could feel as his brothers and sister phased and leapt to the hunt. Jake ordered them all into a sweep formation designed to cut off and pin the vampire where they wanted it to be, but Jack wasn't part of that formation. Jack had caught up with the imprint with only a few strides, and he had his own orders from the Alpha. Get human and get Cassie to the rest of the imprints. Kim and Emily were selling some of their jewelry to Sue Clearwater, so get Cassie to the store in the middle of the reservation, and hole up there with the imprints until Jake said otherwise. Don't worry about Samantha, she was down the street at the dojo and the Alpha was pretty sure in this moment, she could hold her own. The Alpha started barking other orders but Jack had his, and he was phased back and snatching up a startled Cassie, swinging her over his shoulder as he ran.

In his defense, five hundred years ago, it wasn't that strange to have a bare naked man running through their ancestral lands.

Jack didn't need to know where he was going, his Alpha had put the directions into his head, so he merely shot through the reservation, the tiny imprint over his shoulder at first frightened by the suddenness of the actions. However, Cassie had faith in him, had faith in them all, and all of the imprints had been warned that a single vampire would be breaking the border sometime soon, despite how vigilant their patrols. Everyone had just thought that they had a couple more days before it happened. So Cassie knew why Jack had her snatched her up, and even though it was common knowledge in the Pack that vampires scared her, Jack had protected her from more frightening than that when in Montana.

The ancient wolf couldn't figure out why she was laughing however, unaware that Cassie's face had a very good view of Jack's flexing posterior. All he knew was that he needed to run.

The streets were filled with enough people that Charlie Swan and the village elders would be called with multiple complaints about a streaker heading through town with that blonde girl who had shacked up with Paul Coho. The residents of La Push weren't particularly surprised that Paul's less than respectable fiancée would be seen with someone naked, especially after that poor boy had went up north to work so hard, and it would give her a reputation for infidelity that Cassie would never deserve. Still, even later, she would never be too mad because in the people of La Push's defense, Jack was quite fit and quite fast and quite naked. She could have not cheated with worse.

The Russian girl had never seen buttock muscles flex so…well before. She was actually a little disappointed that she hadn't been draped over his shoulder the other way so that she could have seen the more interesting side, but at least she could check Jack off of her list. Jack personally was more concerned with the vampire.

Cassie was breathless from laughing as Jack burst through the door of the store that she had pointed him to, after having traumatized both Shane and Casey, who had been smoking outside the pizza parlor as Jack and Cassie ran past. Kim and Emily had laid out their wares for Sue to look at when Jack jumped through the door, inhaled deeply to assure himself that yes these were the two imprints he had never met before he plopped Cassie down on the counter right in between them. He locked the door and crouched in between the imprints and the door protectively. Teeth to the door, and rear end to…well, them all.

To her credit, Sue Clearwater didn't scream at having a nude stranger in her store. Once Cassie had managed to stop laughing long enough to sort of explain what might be going on, all four women actually dealt with it rather well. They dealt with it so well that when the fifth finally came into the store, frustrated that they had lost the vampire _again_, he worriedly glanced around the room to make sure that everyone was okay. To his dismay, Sam found Jack crouched and ready as the imprints and Sue Clearwater all enjoyed a soda and watched Jack watching the door protectively. Emily smiled brightly when caught staring, Kim was humming happily around her soda while sketching something on a scrap of paper, and Cassie declared brightly to Sam that he could go and let Jack protect them some more.

Sue Clearwater grinned naughtily at both Sam and Jack and told them both that the crouching had been her favorite part.

Sam groaned but by then the poor wolf had realized where he was, realized what he had done, realized who's orders he had shattered. A tremble rolled through the ancient wolf, Sam's only warning but enough for Sam to shove Jack out of the back door of the store and into the trees before he phased.

Jack fled across the reservation, eyes squeezed shut so that he couldn't accidentally see. He was sorry. He was really really sorry. But again, the ancestors never said a word.

* * *

The Cullens had been furious about the loss of the vampire, and to be honest, it was the Pack's fault.

However Neel was the fastest, trickiest shit that Seth had ever tried to hunt, so even as the Cullens reamed Jacob, and Embry reamed Collin, Seth was pretty sure that it still would have given them the slip. It was like the damn thing knew the reservation as well as they did, knew where exactly to run to keep from getting pinned and cornered, knew exactly how best to avoid the Pack alone and in groups. Collin had been the closest to catching him, the young pup hated that vampire's scent with a passion, and had broken the border in following it even though the Cullens and Jake had told them not too. Jake had said they couldn't follow the leech over the border, it messed up Alice's visions too much, but he hadn't made it an Alpha order and Collin was fluxing so much in dominance right now that in the heat of the hunt, an Alpha order was necessary to hold him back.

Well, Jake had made sure to take care of that, although a few moments too late.

Seth's head still hurt from the strength of the Alpha order that was on them now, Jake having been pissed and somewhat heavy handed because the Cullens were right. Collin breaking the border had given Alice a blind spot and the leech had gotten away through that blind spot, but not before managing to get a good enough hit in on Emmett that the large vampire was still seeing stars. What the Cullens were angriest about was that they had been out for a run and Emmett and Jasper had convinced Renesmee to try hunting again with just them. That the vampire had gotten that close to Ness, even if she was protected and not the leech's target, made Seth's blood run cold. He wasn't really sure why.

So after Jacob got chewed up and slammed them with the order, Seth went to find Jack at the Alpha's request. After all, Jack was kind of having a breakdown on the border, and it was upsetting them all and distracting the Alpha. It didn't particularly surprise Seth that the pups, Sam, and Embry went to check on the imprints, or that Leah was planning on spending the night guarding Claire. It did surprise him that when they were done, with the exception of Leah and Jake, they all joined Seth on the borderline where he lay stretched out in his sandy wolf form, watching Jack from their side of the border.

Confused and uncertain, Jack had curled up in a ball, his nose resting on the very last bit of non-Quileute soil, his exhaled breath now Quileute air. He didn't know why the voices that were always in his head were silent now, when he only had to think of the old days, and the old Pack, and the old ways for his mind to be assaulted. He didn't understand. He wasn't supposed to be on that side, should never have been able to cross over without…

The Beta wasn't particularly interested in having anything between him and one of his wolves, and he felt that maybe it was time that Jack realized something. As the Beta padded over, settling down beside Jack and resting his muzzle on the ancient wolf's hip, the others followed suit. So it was surrounded on every side, a dog pile that was Pack, that Jack learned that this wasn't the first time he had crossed the border. That he had crossed in chasing a hare for Leah, and Jack remembered that day. Remembered his mind being clear of the ancestors' anger. Remembered going home to only the softest of voices in his head.

But no. _No_. No, Jack wasn't allowed on their lands. The Tlokwali Alpha had told him he was banished, and the rock wasn't smooth, and he couldn't…

The Beta had been quiet, but then cut off Jack's thoughts as he decided that Jack was in the wrong. Jacob Black was the Tlokwali Alpha now, had ordered Jack as the Alpha needed today, and that was all Jack needed to know. And not only had Jake given Jack permission to cross the border and be on their lands, but that the Alpha wanted and needed Jack there. Jack may be respecting the order of a previous Alpha, but if Jack truly believed that he was _Jake's_ wolf now, then he needed to follow _Jake's_ orders. Seth believed that Jake didn't want to order Jack around because he was trying to be kind to the oldest wolf, to ease Jack gently into their world and their Pack. But Jack needed to know that Jake wanted him there, they all did. Eventually Jack was going to have to choose if he wanted to live in the past forever or be a part of their future with them. The Pack wanted him with them. But what did Jack want?

The ancient wolf shivered, because what he wanted was never going to happen. He had done too much. This was no longer his home and never could be again. His mind slipped into fuzziness, remembering who he was, what he had done, and the murmuring of voices rose in his mind, making it harder to concentrate on what the Beta was saying. Realizing that Seth was losing him, the Beta stood up and huffed out a sigh, touching his nose to Jack's ruff briefly. Jack's path was difficult and unnecessary, but in the end it was Jack's path and Jack's decision. Right now Seth had a reservation to run, and patrols to do, they would talk about this later. Be easy, Jack. Everything was okay. However, Jack _would_ cross the border from now on if the reservation was under attack, and that was an order.

In his mind, Jake enforced that order, making Jack press his belly into the ground in subservience. He would do as his Alpha asked, always.

The Alpha thought that Jack had done well today. They all had, but they would not force him to join them. Jake needed to talk to Seth and Embry, and the pups needed to get back on patrol. Jack…could do whatever he wished. Everyone else needed to be back on the rez. They had to figure out how to catch this leech.

Jack watched his Pack glance at him longingly and then slip away into the growing dusk. He made sure to pick up the clear plastic bag with its single remaining cookie inside, the cookie from her half that Cassie had saved for him, and cringing from his Pack's disappointment, Jack tucked his tail and slunk back home.

Back home…where nothing but ghosts and a dead man waited. Jack wondered when that had stopped being good enough.


	7. Chapter 5

A/N Okay, so we're at the imprint chapter. I want to remind everyone that this is a child imprint fic, and a Renesmee/OC imprint fic. If either of those things bother you, now would be a good time to stop reading and wait for Book Four. I worked in plenty of Book Three's epilogue, so you don't need to reread that before reading this. Thanks to _LightIsPrecious_ and _HopefulHeartache_ for all the extra help this chapter. :D And thanks as always to my reviewers: _LucyPenny, Aleena Kiwiana, Manna1, EnglishVoice, cylobaby, The all mighty and powerfulM, MargotTenser, hefors, moani-sama, LightIsPrecious, Buffyk0604, KerryH, laurazuleta 18, garlauri, MadToTheBone1, hilja, HopefulHeartache, dirtychicken, 82c10akaLynn, chicadee74, Roonani, LadyMonday, Elvira Iula, katieklutz, Ninadoll, lionandlamblover, _and_ WorldsAngel_. You guys rock!

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Five

_Winter had come early to the Kwòlíyoť this year._

_It wasn't a good thing, because Qa'al's people were hungry. It was rare that the álita would choose to be crafty, swimming deep and slipping beyond the nets of their most skilled fishers, at the same time that the summer sun would choose to bake the earth, drying it out and sending the herds northward in search of better grazing. Food had been scarce, with the Tlokwali forced to range far in search of game, still barely able to feed their own. Those that weren't Tlokwali were scratching in the dirt like birds in search of what little the earth was still willing to offer, and it wouldn't be the first time that winter's usual dried meats and vegetables were replaced by deeply buried roots, dug up and boiled until edibility. It was the way of the wolf to follow the herds when they left, but it was the way of the Quileute people, the Kwòlíyoť, to stay where they were, to guard their precious homeland, even if it would have made more sense to be nomadic. It was the Kwòlíyoť way. They would rather starve and die, then leave. _

_Qa'al had seen too many of his people do just that over the years._

_He and T'sikáti had long since stopped arguing this point with the councils, instead doing as they could to bring more food to their tribe when the winter months grew too lean. Both of the friends had been gone this past day and night, using Tlokwali noses to hunt, but there was just nothing to be found. The smallest game had been eaten by larger hunters, and the larger hunters were gone. A single half-grown kíkit, much smaller than the other elk, had been the best they had taken, and that had been three weeks ago. The kíkit had been left behind as the herds moved on because of its hurt leg, and it had been mostly-starved and limping as it chewed on tree bark and bleated with pain. It had fed their tribe for some days, but it wouldn't for much longer. _

_The hunt today had brought nothing, but Qa'al would go back out again, they all would. For the time being their Alpha had ordered them home first, to eat what they could and rest. To take comfort in each other, while they were still together, for soon the Tlokwali would split out of necessity. T'sikáti would stay and protect their lands with Qa'al and only a few others. The Beta would take the rest of the Pack to follow the herds, no matter where they had gone, and they weren't to return without something of value. Qa'al would wish them a good journey, even though he was worried that they would run themselves empty. The kíkit spirits had spoken to Qa'al and told him that they would not return to Kwòlíyoť bellies until next year. Having been informed of this, T'sikáti had merely smirked and told Qa'al that the fishhook put too much faith in the voices of dead things, that one could not have a future if one spent all their lives with their noses in the past. The spirits were not all knowing._

_In that the fish and the fishhook were content to disagree. _

_The Makah woman, Tuktukadi, was waiting for him when he came in, although she was doing her best to pretend that she wasn't. Qa'al paused in the entrance of the longhouse, making a show of brushing the snow off his head and arms, so much so that a passing Tlokwali snickered and wondered out loud if their Qa'al made a habit of snow dancing for caught owls. Qa'al smirked over his shoulder, saying loudly that he only danced for the beautiful ones that got angry and hooted at him for tracking snow into their homes. From her place in the center of the longhouse, bundled up in furs and with a half-finished dog hair blanket on her lap, Tuktukadi glared at him, her pretty eyes flashing. Qa'al gave her his best grin, which only seemed to anger her more._

_She was an attractive woman, but when angered, Qa'al was convinced she was stunning. Perhaps he enjoyed angering her more than he should, just to have something pleasing to look at._

_"Hísta álita, Tuktukadi," Qa'al said cheerfully, walking over to greet her and laughing when she ducked his welcoming embrace and ignored his request for something to eat, despite the fact that she had already prepared the bowl of dried fish and kept it covered at her side._

_"Hísta __**tála**__, Qa'al," she retorted, and Qa'al chuckled and snagged her in despite her growls of protect, resting his chin on the top of her head._

_"Ahh, but I have no money to give you for my dinner, my beautiful Tuktukadi," he told her regretfully, allowing her to sneak out of his arms. "Perhaps the man is enough?"_

_"All I see is a kadidu," the Makah woman declared, although when he winked at her, she blushed a little despite her aggravation. She had said more than once that she should have never given him that water, he'd been following her around like a pup ever since. Qa'al was much too clever a hunter to tell her this pup was a cagey old wolf, biding his time until his prey grew tired and decided she wanted to be caught. So he yipped at her playfully, and Tuktukadi seemed less than amused, even as she handed Qa'al his meal of fish they had dried together this summer. It was scant fare but it would be enough. He could tell that she had given him half of her own portion, even if she was too proud to have ever admitted it._

_Qa'al was pretty sure he loved her. But she didn't need to know that yet._

_"You make delicious fish for an owl," Qa'al complimented her, chuckling as he sank to the ground and began to eat. In truth, the woman could not cook at all, but Qa'al wasn't particular when the view was this good. Tuktukadi grimaced and picked up the dog hair blanket she was weaving, trying her best to ignore that he was watching her with sparkling eyes. _

_"You mean I make delicious fish for a slave," she grumped back, and he smiled a little bigger._

_"I have been told that owls make bad slaves." Qa'al teased, pushing her further. "Tlokwali owls especially, because they try to run away and have to be carried back when their paws give out, and when they try to fly away, they lose their way from wagging tails. Perhaps if they tried to flap their wings as they ran, they would succeed where they had previously failed?"_

_Tuktukadi made a snarling noise in her throat and she threw the blanket at him, which Qa'al laughingly caught with one hand, even as he munched on his fish with the other. It was true that their newest pup's sister, Tlokwali herself now that her brother had lived through the ceremony and claimed her as under their protection, could not fly high enough or run far enough to escape them. Because she was Makah, she was deeply distrusted by the Kwòlíyoť people, and she had been given as a gift by the Makah people and as such was a slave. There was nothing that Tuktukadi hated more than this fact, and she made sure to remind him of it every day._

_It could be worse, Qa'al knew, she could have been a slave for one of the other elders, but T'sikáti had taken pity on her and asked that she belong to the Alpha. So she did, and she lived with them in the longhouse, and the Alpha she treated with respect as was due to him, but Qa'al for some reason always drove her to anger and frustration. She claimed that her attempts at running away were because that she refused to act the slave for a chattering bird, one who was as foolish as he was loud. This amused the Tlokwali even more, because Qa'al was a quiet man by nature, although he made an effort to chatter at her when she wished it for something to complain about. _

_It was T'sikáti's private opinion that Qa'al allowed her to run away so often simply so that Qa'al could go out and catch her. It was Qa'al's much less private opinion that it was far too enjoyable watching the backside of the wolfowl that ran away, so if he happened to catch her, it was only on accident._

_The tribe wondered why it was that their Qa'al would be so taken with a Makah slave, but Qa'al was far too old and set in his ways to care what anyone thought of him now. Well, except for T'sikáti. Qa'al would live and die to keep his Alpha and longest friend content with him. Currently T'sikáti was contenting himself in a pretty woman's arms two longhouses over, although it was Qa'al's opinion that Tuktukadi was much prettier. He always had been attracted to women that regularly tried to kill him. She had tried three times last winter, twice in the summer, but only once this late fall. Qa'al took that as a sign he was growing on her. T'sikáti took it as a sign that Qa'al was a fool and needed to bed the woman already, she was giving him enough hints about it._

_Tuktukadi could tell he was watching her contemplatively, and she rolled her eyes, holding out her hand for her partially finished blanket. "Give it to me, Qa'al," she insisted. "It is mine."_

_"Hmmm, you have given it to me as a present," he decided for her, ignoring her glare. "It is mine. However it is custom to return a gift with another gift. What would you like, Tuktukadi? The moon is busy flirting with the sun, but there are plenty of stars that seemed bored tonight."_

_"My freedom," she said immediately and Qa'al chuckled, chewing on his dried fish. _

_"I thought you were not a slave?" he countered, and Tuktukadi flushed._

_The dark haired woman rose and walked to the corner where it was colder, where she was further away from him. "I am not a slave," she declared proudly, sitting down and drawing the heavy fur shawl around her shoulders for warmth. "I am Makah, and I am not a possession of yours or your Alpha."_

_"The Alpha owns us all," Qa'al smiled at her, rising with his bowl and following to where she had sat. "But you are a slave, woman, if only a slave to your heart," he decided, winking at her as he sat down next to her, so close their hips were touching. _

_She huffed and stood up again, marching back to the center of the long house. "My heart died the day I left my home," the woman declared harshly as she once again settled down. "If I am a slave to my heart, than my master is gone, and I am free either way. You should let me go."_

_Qa'al followed her because he could, content in doing so. "If your heart is gone, then I must hunt you a new one," he decided, munching happily, this time forcing her to scoot over when he would have sat down on top of her if she hadn't. "What heart would you prefer? Would you prefer a fish? Or perhaps a bear so that you can growl at me more forcefully when I come home to you?" _

_Tuktukadi rose again, this time settling herself near to the entrance, despite the cold. "I would have the heart of an owl," she whispered, her voice softening in her unhappiness. "So that I can once again be who I was, and then I could fly away from you forever, Qa'al."_

_He thought about that for a while, finished his fish, and then rose one more time, walking over and dropping to his haunches next to her. He smiled and brushed a hand over her dark hair. "Tuktukadi," Qa'al said gently, shifting so that his warmer body was closer to hers, his actions slow so not to startle her. She was so quick to run, and he was a patient hunter. "Even the bird can be pulled from the sky when the wolf has set eyes on his prey." _

_"Even if she flies into the darkest night, into the deepest snow?" she asked softly. "Will he then still find her?" _

_Qa'al leaned in, inhaling her scent and smiling a little. "The wolf will brave the cold and learn to fly if that's what it takes to catch the bird. She is worth the trouble that she makes in keeping her." Then he grinned playfully. "Makah slaves are often like that, or so I've been told. You are the first that T'sikáti and I have kept."_

_It wouldn't be the first time she smacked him with all her strength. And no matter how many times she did it afterwards and hurt her hand just as badly, out of sheer stubbornness the next time she would do it the same. But each time she huffed in anger, clutching her hand and darting away from the village, determined to run away again despite the darkness of night and the weather, Qa'al simply laughed and went out after her, dragging her kicking and biting back in again as her brother looked on unconcerned. After all, no matter what the people thought, even the newest Tlokwali knew his leaders, and it was no secret that when the hooting was done, and the nights grew too cold, it was Qa'al who would sleep with Tuktukadi tucked protectively into his arms and he would only do so because she would be there willingly. _

_Slave or not, Makah or not, it was of no concern to Qa'al. He did not give his heart at his council's whim. As long as his Alpha was content, he would do as he pleased, as he had always done. And there was no one strong enough to tell him otherwise. _

* * *

The Third was finally home.

The Third was finally home, bringing Jack's two Packmates with him, even if only for a couple days, and Paul was close enough that Jack had been sleeping under the heady reassurance of Paul's proximity on his senses. That reassurance however was pleasantly eclipsed by the fact that the Beta was standing directly over Jack's head, grinning down at him. A Beta trumped a Third any day of the week, especially when they tossed paper bags full of things that smelled warm and wonderful into his lap.

Jack's eyes fluttered open and he smiled back contentedly. "Hello, Beta," he said sleepily from his lawn chair, his nose picking up the smell of sausage and eggs and bread. The voices in his head hummed, their soft chanting a greeting in its own right, but muffled by the presence of the Beta. It was a nice way to wake up, not nearly as jarring as it used to be when Jack had been a lone wolf, and the voices harsher and louder to his ears.

"Morning, princess," Seth chuckled teasingly as Jack yawned and stretched, the bones in his back cracking nicely. "Since it looked like you were going to sleep until your shift, I went hunting for you," Seth added, leaning against the stack of pallets Jack's feet had been propped up on as he slept.

"Hmmm…the Beta is a competent hunter," Jack decided as he stuffed his first breakfast sandwich in his mouth and swallowed in one bite. "That which is sausage flees in fear before his swift feet, and the cheese begs mercy beneath his sharp teeth. It is good to have a competent Beta." He swallowed a second one and then grinned. "Perhaps the Beta could have hunted potato cakes as well?"

Seth chuckled and flicked something at Jack's face, a beer cap that Rico had left lying on the pallets last night. Jack allowed it to hit him in the nose, it was his Beta's pleasure to flick him and Jack's pleasure to eat two handed. "Oh, the Beta hunted potato cakes," Seth smirked. "But they were a vicious foe that had to be destroyed immediately."

"I too have suffered much at the hands of an unwilling potato cake," Jack nodded seriously. "Some enemies can be reasoned with and some forever are unbending in their resistance to reason and logic."

"Always eat the potato cake?"

"Indeed, Beta," Jack decided contentedly. "Until you say it otherwise," he added, giving Seth a wolfish grin as he finished his final sandwich.

Jack thought about asking the Beta what he wanted, but Seth was eyeing him speculatively, so Jack made sure to drop his eyes and not accidentally read his Beta's thoughts from his body language. That was a disrespect the Beta was never due, it was not Seth's fault that he was young and not yet able to mask his thoughts in physical form. Just considering the disrespect made Jack tilt his head ever so slightly, making sure that his throat was clear to the Beta's view, even if he was not being overt about it.

His Beta missed little.

"Sometimes I wish I was in your brain, Jack," Seth chuckled. "Because I have no clue why you just bared your throat to me."

Jack smiled and thought very clearly that the Beta deserved his Pack's throats bared to him, because he was the Beta. Then he thought it twice again, loudly, and Seth laughed. "You know, I'm pretty sure you were trying to tell me something, but sorry, man. You lost me. Jake is a lot better at this whole reading body language thing than me. Me, I'm all about this," Seth tapped the side of his nose. "I'd trust it over my eyes any day of the week."

On a whim, Jack closed his eyes and played a game that he and the younger wolves had used to play, a long time ago. Knowing his Beta's eyes were on him, he allowed himself to focus on one thing and one thing only, how good it felt to have his belly full. It was a simple emotion, one that every warm and cold blooded creature had felt if it had lived past its first hours, that deep contentment of no longer being hungry, no longer at risk of losing one's life to weakness caused by starvation. Being full was wonderful. Being full was a good thing, and it made him happy. That pleasure, that contentment was hard to smell, but the muscles in his face, in his shoulders would speak of this contentment, in the way that they softened, relaxed. Fullness was often accompanied by sleepiness, both were warm and good, but fullness was more subtle than sleepiness. It would take both the Beta's nose and eyes to read what Jack was feeling.

Unfortunately the Beta was too young to know how to properly use them both.

Seth barked out a laugh at himself, shaking his head, and his mirth brought Jack's eyes back open. "Beta fail, Jack, the only thing I picked up was that you were happy and I _smelled_ that." He tapped his nose again. Jack wasn't in a habit of correcting his Beta but he figured that he could risk it this once.

"We are all born happy, Beta," Jack said with a little smile playing about his lips. "It is how we were meant to be, and that is why we strive so hard to return to that happiness. Only in the loss of happiness do we experience emotions, and the change of scent that those emotions invoke. The lack of all those other scents is difficult to smell, and the best of noses would be hard pressed when surrounded with the scent of Cold One as we are here. If I am happy, then it is because your eyes know it, Beta, not your nose."

Far from being angry at being corrected, Seth beamed. "Really? That's cool. That's _really_ cool, actually. Go me," Seth grinned, high fiving himself jokingly.

Jack couldn't help but smile, pleased that his Beta was so pleased with himself. "It is not an easy thing to learn, Beta," Jack said shyly. "But if you wish, I can begin to show you. It will require time...much time spent with me, if you are willing."

"Definitely," Seth nodded instantly. "No place I'd rather be," he said happily. Then Seth laughed again. "Okay, that's kind of a lie. I met a girl who has killer legs and can give one hell of a backrub, so I guess hanging out with her is a place I'd rather be, but you're a close second," Seth assured Jack with a smirk.

"I have recently had my belly rubbed," Jack murmured peacefully. "It was very nice. Perhaps you can get her to change sides?"

"Dude, I freaking wish," Seth sighed, slumping. "Stupid imprinting. I always wanted to imprint, I think I'm the only one that ever has, but then I meet a girl and imprinting's like a freaking anvil over my head. And it seems like everyone's doing it these days. Of us ten male wolves, half of us have imprinted already. One out of two odds aren't that good for the single guy on the go."

"Imprints should be rarer than that, Beta," Jack said, ignoring the fuzziness in his head as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. It was easier to speak of the past when he was newly awakened, after all, his dreams were filled with the dead and that which was no longer. "It was one wolf in twenty that imprinted in his first century. Most that would imprint had done so by their second century, and most of us preferred to take a mate for wife and stop phasing by our third if we had not imprinted already. Life forever is meant for the cold and the dead, not the warm and the living. The Tlokwali were never suited for it."

"Most of the wolves we have met outside La Push have been in their second century, Jack," Seth reminded him, "Tupkuk was old still, Jake could tell."

Jack nodded, pushed down the anger that always accompanied hearing _that one's_ name, and then spoke. "Without an Alpha of suitable strength, it grows hard for ones such as us to stop phasing," the ancient wolf replied. "There is much fear in the scattered Packs, fear of each other, fear of death outside of Quileute lands. Those Alphas that would have helped their wolves stop phasing would have been weakened by that loss, and in weakening would have put their other wolves at risk. The way of our people now is not as it ever has been, or ever should have been. We are not made to be broken into many, when we have always existed as one. It wears on us, even on ones such as you, Beta, although you are accustomed to it, having phased into this life as it is now. We as a people, we who were once Tlokwali, grow old and we grow tired."

"And you, Jack?" Seth asked gently, and Jack smiled, raising his face to the sky.

"I grew old and tired a long time ago," Jack said with a peaceful look. "I've recently considered growing younger and more energized." Jack suddenly flashed a grin at his Beta. "Perhaps if I continue to run at the heels of pups, I will be younger still."

Seth snickered and hopped off the pallets, reaching down and clasping Jack's arm, dragging him to his feet. "Then stop sitting around in your lawn chair, old man," Seth grinned. "You can teach me Jedi mind tricks, and I'm teaching you how to be a pup. The first thing you need to learn is you need to forget your manners. My name is Seth, Jack, not Beta. Seth. Seeeeeeeeth" he dragged it out.

"It is an odd name, Beta, but if you insist," Jack murmured. "Seeeeth."

"No, Seeeeeeeeth."

"Seeeeeeeeeeth."

"Exactly," Seth nodded in approval as Jack chuckled. The ancient wolf took his leftover trash into the trailer, Seth curiously peering inside as he did. Jack waved him in and the Beta hopped up into the narrow living space. He looked around, trying to hide the fact that his nose was wrinkling. "Hey Jack?" Seth asked. "Don't take this as me ripping on your friend or nothing, but does the smell in here ever get to you?"

Jack washed his hands off in the sink and then opened the small refrigerator, pulling out an unopened bottle of orange drink. He poured himself and his Beta both a glass while shrugging. "Some smells are familiar and reassuring, even when unpleasant," Jack said, handing Seth the first glass and draining the second. Then he smiled a little and tapped his own deeply scarred nose. "Unlike my Beta, mine doesn't work as well."

"The wolves down in Mexico really messed you up, didn't they?" Seth frowned, and Jack lowered his eyes as Seth studied his nose. "I thought that would have healed better."

"I am older, Seth," Jack told the younger wolf as he leaned back against the cheap Formica countertop, well aware of the fact that age wise, he barely looked five years the Beta's senior. "Much older than any wolf still alive. My body doesn't heal as fast as it did when I was a young wolf of seven hundred," Jack added with a tiny smirk.

"Dude, that is…yeah. That's really fucking old," Seth decided with a teasing grin, downing his orange drink and settling against the cabinet. "We're really going to have to work on your puppy skills." There was an awkward silence that followed, and Seth shifted uncomfortably, his smile fading. Jack figured that the Beta was having enough problems bringing up the subject, so Jack would help him.

"Thank you for the food, Beta," Jack murmured respectfully. "What is it that you want of me?"

The Beta made a decision, and then turned to the ancient wolf. "Sims turns eighteen today, Jack," Seth said suddenly, and as the Beta's eyes rested on him more fully, Jack tried to soften his body language into an even meeker version of himself as the Beta added cheerfully, "Embry's throwing her a Halloween birthday party at his place, and after patrol you're coming too."

Seth was expecting resistance and he allowed more _Beta_ into his voice than normal, turning the statement into an order. And despite the easygoing tone, it was a strong order at that. The other wolves in the Pack might not have differentiated, but Jack had many lifetimes of ordering and being ordered and he knew the difference. With a shudder, he felt the weight of the command on his limbs and he knew for a fact that he _would_ be going. He had survived crossing the border twice, but no matter how much he wanted to finally go home, the thought of breaking his dead Alpha's order willingly forced a whine out of his throat. A shiver went through his limbs, and Jack tucked himself tighter even as his head bent down submissively. He was weaker now, so very weak, and with this order he would have no choice.

"Yes, Beta," he whispered.

Seth frowned, and took a step towards Jack, and even though he knew better, he _knew_ better, Jack shifted away, ducking his head even more. "Jack, stop it," Seth barked, and he froze in place. "Dammit, Jack," Seth growled, "You need to stop doing that."

Jack didn't know what the Beta meant, but he would try. He'd do his best to try not to do whatever that was. Not wanting to ask, Jack decided that it would be safest to do nothing at all. The Beta cursed and then to Jack's shock, Seth sank to his heels, giving the older wolf the dominant position. Jack was pretty sure his rear end had never hit the floor faster in trying to fix that. Seth sighed and shook his head.

"Jack? You do realize that you can stand above me, right?"

He said nothing, shivered and keeping his eyes flat on the floor.

"Jack, you can stand above me, because I'm not worried about my position with you," Seth explained gently. "I know your place in the Pack, and I know my own. Could you whip my ass from here to kingdom come?" he added with a chuckle. "Yeah, probably. But you wouldn't and I _know_ that. You've got to stop trying to prove that you're submissive to us, Jack. We know you are. You have nothing to prove."

"I will do better, Beta," Jack promised, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He would do better. He had to do better.

Seth's hand ended up on his shoulder and the Beta gave him a reassuring look. "Listen, man, I get it, okay? I get it more than you know. You've lived your whole life as a wolf, but our Pack is different than your old one. It's a new club and you're trying to fit in this time when your last time around didn't go so well. But your last time around you didn't have me, and you didn't have Jake. I have to be honest, some of these older wolves are pretty much assholes, and even with this little contact with them, I can already tell that our Pack and all of theirs aren't going to see eye to eye. And considering that you and they don't see eye to eye either, I figure that you are right where you need to be, with us. So trust us, man, trust me. We know what happened to you back then and we know what it caused and we know that you had your reasons. And I bet my ass that if you had had _us_ back then, shit would've gone differently. They might not have listened to you then, but your Pack is listening to you now."

Jack didn't know what to say to that, but the Beta's words sank in and he closed his eyes. Seth thought his Alpha had turned on Jack, and that wasn't true. The need to protect T'sikáti, to defend him was a strong as it had ever been, so Jack took a deep steadying breath and forced himself to calmness.

"My Alpha, he tried…it is hard to control a Pack so large, and when they are so full of anger…he did all that he could do," Jack said softly, and Seth squeezed his shoulder again.

"And now we'll do more," Seth promised. "Believe it or not, that's why I'm here. Jack, do you know why I spend more time with you than Jake does?" Jack didn't know. He was pleased anytime the Alpha sought him out, but did not expect Jake to do so.

Seth gave Jack an understanding smile, saying, "I spend more time with you because you need me to. You see, I think that out of all of us, you're the most scared of me. You won't use my name, and you struggle talking to me more than you do everyone else. I make you uncomfortable."

"You are the Beta, Seth," Jack mumbled. "That is all that matters."

"Is that what you believe, or is that what you keep trying to convince yourself of?" Seth countered, and Jack's head snapped up quickly, locking eyes with the younger wolf before he remembered himself and looked back down. Seth shook his head and then pulled Jack back to his feet.

"Listen man, I'm not him. What happened with you and your old Beta never happened between us. I'm not your old Beta reincarnate. I'm Seth Clearwater, and we have always been cool. You have never done anything in this Pack to cause you to need to flatten yourself around us, and when Jake decided about you, that was enough for us. One day, I hope it will be enough for you too. I know you were in hell these last few centuries, but it's over now. You're not alone anymore, and it's time to come home."

Jack wanted to, he wanted so badly to go home. He had crossed the border and nothing had happened either time. Was it possible that he was wrong and that it _was_ okay?

"How about this," Seth chuckled. "You have to come to the party after your shift today because it's an important Pack ceremony and as a Packmember, you have no choice. This is an order. I'll see you at the party, right Jack?"

"Yes, Beta." He would go. The new Alpha leaned on him supportively, and Jack knew that yes, he would go. To make this Beta happy, to make his new Pack happy, he would do anything. Anything at all.

Seth sighed dramatically and grabbed both of Jack's shoulders, giving him a hard shake. "Seth, old man, my name is Seth. Seeeeeeeeeth."

"Seth," Jack corrected himself, allowing his lips to curve into a smile. The smile stayed on his lips the rest of the day, despite his fears. He was going home.

* * *

Jack had done as his Beta requested. He had crossed the borderlines, knowingly this time and of his own volition, although he had waited until the Beta had met him at the border to do so. The Beta was dressed strangely, and when asked, Seth had launched into a very detailed description of who Spiderman was, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the ancient wolf slinking at his heels. Seth made sure to walk slowly, and after the first few minutes of staring pointedly at Seth's right shoulder and nothing else, Jack finally risked raising his eyes and looking around.

It was a different world than he had remembered. But it had once been his world, and there were some things he could never forget.

The slope of the land was slightly different, subtly so, the shifting of the earth beneath their feet causing the ground to change from how it had once been, even if Jack was the only one who would ever notice. Some of the oldest trees were gone, and he paused more than once, finding tears welling unbidden in his eyes at their loss. They had been lifelong friends, ones that should have outlived him, not the other way around. There were newer trees in their place, ones that Jack had yet to meet, but there was no time for that today. After awhile, Jack stopped looking around, because it wasn't the homecoming that he had so desperately wanted for so long. The faces that he had once loved so deeply were all gone. The houses that they walked past were no longer the carefully crafted Quileute longhouses, but small and often rundown Hókwať, pale-face, homes. Everywhere he saw his people, but they barely gave him a second look, just another Native American man at the heels of Seth Clearwater, who was much more interesting to them because of his dress.

Jack cringed when the worst of the homes he passed smelled of his Alpha's imprint. In Jack's time, those who were Tlokwali would have lived together, making sure that their longhouses were of the best quality, and in them the imprints were given the warmest spots to live and lay and love with them. It disturbed him deeply, and if she had been inside, Jack wasn't sure he could have left her there. Seth caught his distress, and nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, it bugs me too," Seth admitted. "But Embry took care of it. She's with him now."

That was good. The Alpha's imprint being with the Alpha would have been better, but that was good. The Beta seemed to understand that this was becoming increasingly difficult for Jack, so he picked up the pace and headed through the woods towards Embry's and now Sims' house. They could have gone straight here from the border, but the Beta had apparently been trying to let Jack see his old homelands. Unfortunately Jack wasn't ready, hadn't been ready, and it was better to keep his eyes on Seth's back and try not to let the deep sadness inside him overwhelm him. The ancestors chanted softly in his head, so low that he couldn't hear what they were saying, and he wondered if they were afraid of the Beta and that's why they wouldn't raise their voices.

It shook him, that realization, but in thinking it Jack knew it was true. He just didn't know what it meant.

Jack stopped wondering as the scent of Pack, and smoke, and strangers reached his nose, followed by Halloween music and people laughing. Seth trotted up to the house, one that smelled of the fourth, and Jack immediately felt better. He hadn't realized that he was shaking from the stress of this until the Third's Mate cried out his name happily and flung herself at him, hugging him tightly and telling him how proud she was of him for coming. Her words and her hugs were echoed by Packmate after Packmate, and even as he tried not to let his shyness overwhelm him and go hide in the nearest hidey hole, Jack thrived under the affection and attention of his Pack.

He was given a cookie that looked like a spider and a beer, and the ancestors were nearly silent in his head. Not necessarily the homecoming he had expected or dreamed about so long, but it was good enough for him. Jack had never been to a Halloween party before, but he was under the impression that he was required to look frightening. Considering the fact that his old Pack, scattered as they were, hated him so much because they feared him, Jack found it amusing to go as himself.

His new Pack didn't seem to get the joke.

It their defense, they were a little distracted. The Alpha's imprint and her chosen mate were the center of the distraction, Embry seeming unable to keep his hands away from her for more than a moment or two. Wolves, Quileute or otherwise, were happier mated, it was a simple fact of nature. The human part of their personalities made it more complicated, but in the end they wanted another to curl around at night, one to run with and play with and mate with, one to share warmth and the joys of living with. Wolves didn't like to be alone, grew unsettled and off when they were. It was why Jack had chosen living with his natural enemy over living alone. It was why the Alpha's imprint looked so happy tucked in her mate's arms. It was why every time their patrol routes took them close, the newly returned Jared and Paul would dart into the fourth's home, snatch up their respective mates and kiss them thoroughly before dashing back out again. It was why the fifth seemed content to stay in the corner and keep his arms around his own mate, one of the ones that had found Jack's backside so interesting the other day, the one that had blushed so deeply when they had been introduced today.

Her name was Emily, and when she met him, Emily instinctively reached out and touched the deep scarring across his nose. Jack had glanced at the fifth quickly, willing to move back at the smallest hint that Sam didn't want Emily touching him, but Sam wasn't watching Jack, he was watching Emily. So Jack stood and allowed the contact, leaned into it ever so slightly because he couldn't help himself, and the fifth's mate smiled at him sweetly before she let her own scarred hand drop.

Jack wondered if she saw something of herself in him. Jack wondered if she understood that the easiest scars to accept were the ones that lay only skin deep.

Sam caught Jack's gaze and nodded slightly, and Jack dipped his head shyly, scooting away as Brady came past with another drunken imprint on his back. This one was dressed as a grape drink, something that Jack enjoyed almost as much as orange drink, so when she had tried and failed to reach for one of the cookies on Sam's small plate, Jack ducked his head and went to hunt some more for her. Brady noticed and gave him a smile of approval, even though Kim managed to convince Sam to hand all of his cookies over or risk getting wrappered to death. Laughing, Sam had conceded the battle, so Jack's hunt had ended up being just for himself. The Beta was a competent hunter, but Jack was not so bad himself, although every once in a while he got the feeling that another hunter was stalking him as he hovered over the candy corn.

A tiny girl in a karate gi and a lollipop came over to him and gave him a hug and a second lollipop, and pwomised that she and Qwil would bring him back some of their candy. Her name was Claire, and he recognized her from his Packmate's thoughts, and when the little girl had held out her hands, expecting him to lift her up, the wolves all around him had stopped and watched him curiously. Quil stopped arguing with a narrow-eyed Sims about who got to take Claire trick or treating, and both watched him with just a touch of worry in their eyes. Jack was an old wolf and he was a dangerous wolf, but he knew his place in the Pack. If need be, he'd carry their youngest imprint until his legs gave out.

Claire spent about fifteen minutes perched on his shoulders, her sticky hands getting his hair a little sticky too as she pointed out everything that she liked about the people around them and what she thought was silly. Qwil's pirate costume she liked. Her Unca Sam's lack of a costume was silly. Collin pretending to be Pwal she liked. Brady pretending to be Jared was silly, because Brady was gwumpy now and Jared was _never_ gwumpy. She liked the pumpkin decorated cupcakes and thought the fact she could only have two was silly. With each comment, Jack nodded seriously. He was learning more of his new Packmates every day. And then Quil apologetically took her back because he had won the trick or treating war, imprinter rights trumped birthday girl rights, and it was getting late.

As he happily crunched on his lollipop, Jack decided that he liked Halloween, and he liked his Pack, and he was starting to believe that they liked him too. He was the happiest he could remember being in a very long time.

Okay, so maybe he was hiding in the corner of the kitchen, his back to the wall, his head ducked as he offered a quiet hello and a shy smile at everyone that said anything to him. He was still with his Pack, and the wind was blowing the scent of something even better than Pack to him. The scent of Alpha, of Jake, and even as he stayed tucked in his corner, Jack shivered happily. The Alpha's scent mingled with that of something good, but something of the Cold Ones, and Jack knew that the Alpha had chosen to bring the daughter of the Cullen coven with him. It wasn't Jack's place to feel any way about that, although he wondered if Jake knew he was the only Alpha to have ever done such a thing in the entire history of their people. Right or wrong, Jack's Alpha was brave and he was the Alpha and could do as he wished. Pride in that, love for his Alpha tore through Jack, and he huddled deeper into his corner. If he had been wolf, he would have been wagging his tail. As it was, he finished his lollipop and listened to the rest of his Pack greet the Alpha and the half-vampire child outside.

Her voice was distracting to him, her scent as well, but Jack was so much more focused on his Alpha that he was able to ignore it. And then he couldn't keep his smile from widening because Jake was coming into the kitchen and heading straight for him. Grown men looked kind of strange if they rolled onto their backs and happily offered their throats to other grown men in front of crowds of people. But by the expression on Jake's face, the Alpha knew exactly what Jack was thinking.

"Well, it's about damn time!" Jake declared happily, clapping Jack on the shoulder so hard Jack's knees almost buckled beneath the Alpha's strength. "Seth said he bullied you into coming," Jake chuckled, snagging a broken cookie off of the counter and popping it into his mouth while grinning. "How you doing so far?"

Jack couldn't help his own smile in return. "It was…difficult at first, Jake," Jack admitted softly, so softly that only his Alpha's sharp ears would hear him. The half-vampire outside was speaking again, and it made it hard to focus. "Our lands have changed, but it is better than I had feared. It is hard to remember how unwelcome I am here when I have been so overwhelmingly welcomed."

"The guys wanted you here," Jake replied equally softly. "All of us, the girls too. And we know it isn't easy for you, but we appreciate you trying. It's hard on us having a Packmate that holds himself away from us and it's better like this. You've done well, Jack," Jake decided, squeezing his shoulder again.

Jack felt the weight of his Alpha's approval settle over him like a warm blanket, and it pushed the muttering down to only a whisper. Truly, this was how life was supposed to be, this was better than he could have ever asked for. But Jack wanted to do more for his Pack then to hide in a corner. His Third's mate had looked so happy every time the Third had snuck in to kiss her…

"Alpha?"

Jake chuckled, glancing over his shoulder at a very confused girl who had just stepped into the kitchen, and at hearing the name had decided to step back out again. Jack belatedly remembered that there were others here, others that weren't Tlokwali and did not know of them. "I'm sorry," he said immediately, resisting the urge to offer his throat in apology.

"Naw, you're cool," Jake smirked. "That's Nikki Connweller, Kim's little sister. She thinks we're all weird anyways. What did you want to say, Jack?"

"May I patrol for the Third? His mate is lonely and he…he had been kind to me."

Jake watched him for a moment, as if trying to decide if Jack was simply trying to find an excuse to leave the reservation. Then the Alpha nodded, clapping Jack's shoulder harder. "Yeah, man. Yeah, that's cool, Paul will appreciate that a lot. When I take Ness back home later, I was planning on doing the same thing for Jared. But come outside for a minute first, Nessie wanted to meet you."

Jack was surprised at that, and Jake flashed him a white toothed grin. "What? You thought you were the only one in the world that needs more friends?" The Alpha teased, and Jack flushed, but his lips curved upwards. He followed at his Alpha's heels, shifting so that he did not accidentally jostle any of the partygoers, and he heard the Alpha start apologizing playfully to Sims, but again, Jack was distracted. The voices in his head were a little louder now, Jack wasn't sure why, and he stepped sideways out of the way of the Alpha's imprint and the half-vampire child that were headed into the house already. If the Alpha was ducking out of their way, Jack probably ought to as well.

He offered them a small smile, keeping his eyes down, and then the scent became overwhelming. Confused, Jack lifted his eyes and met soft brown ones.

For Jared and Quil, imprinting had been like gravity shifting, their whole selves re-anchored to this new center of gravity. For Paul, it had been like everything in him had flip-flopped inside out, leaving him tied so tightly to someone else that it literally left him ill. For Jake it had been…well, Jake never let anyone know how it had been. But for Jack, it hurt.

It hurt more than anything he had ever known.

A thousand years is a very long time to become someone. A single moment is a very short time to be forced into becoming someone that he was not, into existing for and needing someone that he previously had not. The wrench on his human self, the change that occurred when what was left of his wolf exercised its last right upon Jack, nearly broke what was left of him. Still, he kept his feet, kept himself, kept his mind, understood that this was part of the pact, part of the deal of having two souls blended into one.

The wolf wanted a mate, had resisted the only woman that Jack had been willing to accept as such, and Jack had denied it anyone else for the rest of their long lives. He shouldn't have been able to imprint at this age, it was simply not…not done. But his new Pack had given him new life, and was it possible that life could have given his almost dead wolf enough strength to take one last thing for itself? But Jack had imprinted and as such, it no longer mattered. He knew who he was, and she—she was a vampire. A Cold One. He could see it in her eyes, in the shape of her teeth even as they hide the sharpness of her fangs. He could see it in the way her limbs were put together, even as a child she was made to hunt prey, to take it to ground, to kill. She was a killer. She was a Cold One, if one with human blood in her veins.

She was his enemy. Jack had finally been given a second chance and he had imprinted on his _enemy_.

He had betrayed his Pack again, he had betrayed his Alpha again, he had chosen a vampire, their enemy, as his mate. _Again_. There was no forgiving him this a second time. Jack had waited five hundred years for Jacob Black to absolve him of his sins. But there would never be another Jacob Black and this was it. In the end, Jack was who he had always been. A traitor. A betrayer. Himself. Destined to repeat his past but never fix it. Destined to exist as a living reminder of his shame. Even Jacob Black couldn't take that away for him, and it was that which ripped what was left of him into a thousand tiny shreds, one tear for every year, scattered into the night as his final chance at redemption was lost to the cold evening winds. It was that loss of hope that brought his world crashing down around his knees, and in horror of himself, and what he had done, Jack fled.

Jack fled and he never looked back, afraid of the looks of betrayal he was sure to find. He should have known better. He should never have crossed that line, never allowed the kindness of his Beta and the strength of his Alpha to reassure him that it was okay for him to go home again. It was the _ancestors_ that he had angered, and in believing his redemption could be gained through any form other than appeasing them, he had only managed to anger them more.

He was such a fool.

The ancient wolf knew he was being chased, the child was running after him, and he only ran harder. His body flew over the ground, carrying him away in shame from the Pack that he never should have been allowed to have. Two voices in his head, one younger and louder, one softer and stronger and as old as he was, telling him to stop. But those voices were lost beneath the cries of those who never ever fully left him alone. Their voices chanting his betrayal in his head, louder and louder and louder and each step carried him away.

Jack had just made it to the border of their lands when his Alpha roared in his head for him to _**STOP**_ running away. So that was what Jack did, skidding and tumbling across the ancestral border in an effort to obey the order. Safely on the other side, the side that he deserved to be on, Jack trembled and tried to understand the limitations of the order. The Alpha had said to stop running, but he could still hide. Yes, he could still do that. So Jack crawled under the foliage beside him, a huge leafy fern. He tried to make himself as small as possible as he backed further beneath it, his whole body trembling. He was sorry. He was sorry. He was so so very sorry, Alpha. He didn't mean to, he didn't mean to, he was _sorry_…

His Pack was coming for him, but he shut out their voices, unable to understand what they were saying. Too many voices all roaring at the same time, so many that he wasn't even sure which one was his anymore. So many that he never understood how he even _heard_ the soft rustle of the grass in front of him. So many angry voices…so many that he could only shiver and whine, letting out soft crying noises as he mentally begged them to please please stop. He was sorry. He was so very sorry, please stop, please _please_ stop...

There was another rustle, this time leaves, and he shrank back into his hiding hole, wiggling into the dirt to try and make himself even smaller. He could smell her, a scent that had burned into his brain the very first time it had hit his nostrils, and he rolled his head sideways on the ground. He was cornered…maybe he could fight his way free? The ancestors wanted that, they wanted that very much. She was a vampire. He was supposed to kill vampires. His inability to do so was why he was so blamed, and the wolf quivered as their shame rolled over him in waves. He was sorry. He was sorry...

His Alpha's voice thrusting into the forefront of his thoughts and roaring even louder than all the others. His Alpha telling Jack that he could _not_ hurt Nessie. That if he did, Jake _himself_ was killing Jack. _**He could not hurt her**_. The voices disagreed, and as the little girl crawled beneath the fern, reaching out her hand to him, Jack squeezed his eyes and prayed to whoever was left listening to please help him. He didn't know what to do. Please, he didn't know what to do…

The butterfly landed on his nose.

Jack shivered and opened his eyes. The little girl's outfit was torn, her antenna sideways and her wing damaged, but her eyes were sweet and kind if very uncertain. Her palm brushed against the soft fur of his muzzle as she whispered into his mind to not be frightened, that she wouldn't be frightened if he wasn't either. They could be not scared together. In that moment, for the length of time that the child was speaking in his mind, all of the others voices in his head stopped. _Every single other voice stopped_. It was then that the wolf knew what to do. Betrayal or not, one would ever hurt this one, not her, not _ever_.

This time Jack would do this right.

And then his Pack was there, a heavy wolf leaping on him and pinning him down in his moment of being frozen in place. Someone snatched his imprint…_his _imprint…_Jack's_ imprint… away from him, and the moment her hand left his muzzle the roaring voices came back full force, leaving him completely confused and disoriented.

He struck out instinctively at whoever took her and tasted his Alpha's blood, and then his Beta's blood as a human Seth nearly broke his jaw prying his teeth out of a snarling and cursing Jake's neck. Realizing what he had done, Jack whined pitifully in apology, feeling other wolf and human bodies begin to pile up on him. He had turned on his old Beta and now he had gone for the throat of his new Alpha, and they were going to kill him. As he had done last time, Jack went limp and waited for the pain to come. His last Pack had nearly torn him to pieces and this time there was no Alpha to save him. He wished he could say that he hadn't meant to, that he had struck out, not even realizing who or where he was biting, but he wouldn't have that chance.

For the third time in his life, Jack laid on the ground and waited to die. For the third time, it didn't happen. Instead of being torn to shreds, he was just held down, and his Alpha was ordering him with every bit of strength that Jake had for Jack to _**phase back, do it now**_. Jack tried, but he was lost in his head and he didn't know which way was up and which way was down, and he could taste the blood of his Alpha and his Beta in his mouth, and that left him crushed.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to phase and obey the last command he was given. He was a good wolf, he could be a good wolf, even in the end…just give him a chance and he could be good again…

It took everything a phased Jake and Seth and Paul had to get their voices into his head, fighting past all the rest of them, to get Jack to understand that they weren't going to kill him, and that they knew he hadn't meant it, hadn't meant any of it. And when Leah joined in and added the strength of her own voice with theirs, a she wolf strong enough to set Paul back a notch or two if she hadn't been outside of rank, it was only then that Jack finally was able to phase back to his human form. The rest of them did as well, at Jake's order.

Naked and lost, broken inside and out…even surrounded by Pack, Jack had never felt so alone. He was wolf, wanted to hide from his shame, but he couldn't. Not when clothes were being pressed into his hands, and his Alpha was snarling words that Jack was only starting to understand.

"—do you have any fucking idea? No, of course you don't. No, you're lying there in the fucking dirt convinced we're all going to kill you. Dammit, Jack, what the hell am I going to tell Bells? That a _half lunatic_ imprinted on her daughter?"

The Alpha was angry, but he had every right to be. The deep laceration was already healing in Jake's neck, bloody but not life threatening, but it could have been if Jack hadn't turned his muzzle slightly away at the last moment before striking. The whole Pack were gathered around, although Paul and Embry had disappeared, and where they were headed, Jack's imprint's scent disappeared as well. They were headed to Forks, taking her back to his imprint's home and family, who would have to be told what had happened, and Paul was level headed enough to do so alone and with Embry at his side, hopefully with the least risk. Plus Paul was the highest ranking wolf not currently clustered around Jack, although the low ranking Collin had shoved his way into the mix and had wrapped a muscled arm around Jack's neck, holding the older wolf roughly to his side.

"Jake? Are you sure you're okay?" Seth was asking, sounding worried, and from behind Collin, Quil snorted. At Jack's howl of pain, they had all come running, even him.

"Better than you would have been, Seth," Quil said disapprovingly. "Do you know how goddamn _stupid_ it is take an imprint from a wolf like that? Their first time around each other? That bite was meant for you."

"He was thinking about _killing_ her," Seth snarled back, and Jack cringed, pushing deeper into Collin's ribcage.

Collin let out the deepest growl any of them had heard from them, surprising even Jake and Seth. "Guys, just shut the fuck up, okay?" Collin snapped. "He's freaked out enough as it is. I think we'd _all_ be freaked if we imprinted on Ness, and Jack's got more reason to freak than most. You guys all snarling at each other isn't helping him."

Jake leveled Collin with a look that had the rest of the wolves taking a step back, but Collin just paled and gripped Jack tighter. Suddenly Leah barked out a laugh. "Collin, you're such a mini-me. Don't try to act like Paul with _Jake_ until you can back that shit up."

"He's scared is all I'm saying," Collin muttered, casting a look over his shoulder at Brady, who nodded back and stepped behind Collin's shoulder, standing over him protectively.

Sam rolled his eyes. "You probably shouldn't go to the Cullens bleeding like a stuck pig, Jake," Sam advised quietly, pointing at Jake's neck. Jake cursed and used a spare shirt that Jared stuffed into his hand to press against his wound.

"I'll go without you," Seth offered immediately, but the Alpha shook his head.

"No, this is going to be bad enough, I need to be there," Jake said, his voice commanding. "Okay, Jack, here's the deal. I know you're freaked, but there's no way that the Cullens didn't hear all of that. I sent Nessie back with Paul and Emb, and Paul's going to make sure that they don't bail with her without us knowing, but we need to get over there _now_. The longer Edward has to think about it, the more the asshole's not going to like it, and Bells does whatever the hell he tells her to do. If you want to get to know your imprint, then you need to get your shit together _right now_. We're going to go over there, me and Seth, and we're going to make _sure_ they don't bolt with one of my imprints. But I can't help you if you don't help yourself, and it'll be better if you are there. Jack? _Jack_. Dammit, Seth, I don't even know if he's hearing a fucking thing I'm saying."

"Should you get him to phase back?" Seth asked, his voice doubtful, and Jake shook his head.

"No. He's lost in his head when wolf, and he's better human," Jake decided. "He needs to stay human for this. Jack? Jack, I'm not mad, I promise. I'm more pissed Seth was a dumbass than anything, but we need to go." He ignored Seth's hurt noise and rose to his feet, his body language saying that he wanted Jack to do the same.

Jack closed his eyes and staggered to his feet. He had put his shirt on backwards, Sam pointed out, so he fixed that. He could feel the pull towards Forks, towards the one that had chained him to her. The vampire. _His_ vampire. The second one he had been given. He had lost his first…

The little girl that made the voices in his head stop, if just for a moment. And that was an amazing thing. But she…she was a vampire. Wasn't that a bad thing? Isn't that what he had been forced to learned? Jack was so, so, so very confused. His dead Alpha thought that maybe Jack would be less confused if he let his Alpha figure things out. That was what Alphas were for. At another time, Jack might have kept his mouth shut, but he was deeply shaken from many things all at once and didn't think before he spoke.

"Alpha?" Jack whispered in a rough voice. "I…I don't know what to do. My Alpha told me to ask you, what am I supposed to do?"

There was a shocked silence from everyone, followed by a low whistle between Seth's teeth.

With a long suffering sigh, Jake buried his head in his hands. "Oh hell…We're going to pretend you _didn't_ say that last part, okay Jack? We need to go figure out some fucking way to convince the crypt keepers that this is a _good_ thing, so just follow my lead, keep your mouth shut, and _please_ don't think anything else. Don't do anything, don't say anything, and don't think anything. Nothing. _Nothing else at all_. Got it, Jack?"

"Yes, Alpha." His dead Alpha was right. It was easier this way. Much easier. With a curse, Jack's Alpha started marching for the borderline, Seth and then Jack at his heels, and Jack sank into the order, blissfully allowing himself to be as his Alpha wanted. He would do as he was told. He would prove to his Pack that he was a good wolf. And he…he would think about this imprint when he was allowed to by his Alpha. Until then he would think of nothing at all.

So he thought of nothing, and did nothing, and said nothing, even when the bronze haired vampire punched him in the face and all the screaming started. Instead he sat outside the coven's home, guarded by a very angry looking pair of vampires, a blonde one and her mate, and he waited, and he trusted in his Alpha. It was better this way. While he waited, he prayed to the ancestors for forgiveness, and asked for guidance, and tried to get them to soften their angry cries in his head or help the angry yells in the house behind him.

And when he couldn't silently reason with any of them any longer, Jack closed his eyes and he thought about a butterfly.

* * *

The treaty was about to be broken.

As she sat quietly on her chair, the one that Esme had let her pick out from a magazine and order even though it didn't match, Renesmee tried to think of how to fix what she had accidentally done. You see, she was pretty sure this was all her fault. Renesmee had reread the Bible three days ago as an addendum to her Halloween research, trying to understand the difference in good and evil, devils and angels, monsters and…well…whatever she was. The most that she had concluded was that she was unable to make a conclusion, but that if her father was right and God did exist, then maybe she should ask Him to give her what she wanted most, even though it was wrong to expect it. So a few nights ago she had prayed for a friend. After all, she was very very lonely.

The little girl folded her hands in her lap and looked at the adults arguing loudly in the next room over, thinking that it wasn't pleasant understanding exactly how detrimental a cessation of the treaty would be for her family, and thinking that it was even more unpleasant realizing that this was all her fault. So she closed her eyes, bowed her head, and very properly thanked God for giving her a friend and to please not be too mad if she requested He take that friend back. She really didn't like to see her family this unhappy.

They didn't want her in there, not when they were fighting with Jacob and his Pack. Renesmee had been sent to her chair in the parlor, the brightly patterned little one that Alice didn't have the heart to throw away or the stomach to keep in the main room, and she had tried to read. However, if she craned her head a little, she could see around the corner, it was harder to concentrate on the book on her lap, because her father was yelling even louder now, and Jacob wasn't backing down.

Her father was threatening to take her and keep her away from La Push forever. Jacob was countering that threat with a threat of his own. If her father and mother were going to bolt, the Pack would come after her. Renesmee wasn't Claire, with parents that had to be appeased for the sake of the Pack's safety, or risk the exposure from them telling the world about the Pack's existence. The Cullens were _vampires_, they had their own identities to keep secret.

Edward was threatening to kill Jack, the wolf that had imprinted on her if he came near her again, and Jacob was roaring back that killing one of his wolves, even trying to, would be all the cause Jacob ever needed to take Edward down, but Renesmee was pretty sure that Jacob hadn't meant that. Because as soon as her breath had hitched in hearing that, Jacob had hissed that would they just fucking _listen_? It hurt the imprints just as much as it hurt the wolves to be kept from each other. Jacob wasn't going to let more harm come to his wolf just because her father was, to quote Jacob, "a possessive asshole that has never understood shit", and he sure as hell wasn't letting a goddamn thing happen to Nessie because of Edward's ignorance.

Renesmee knew that if Jacob and her father tried to kill each other, she would be devastated, and she if she took him at his word, which she always did, she knew Jacob wouldn't hurt her like that. She hoped. He was her Alpha now, wasn't he? That meant he wouldn't hurt her no matter what…right?

Despite what she tried to convince herself, and her mother and grandmother's reassuring words and hugs, it was frightening. Carlisle was in surgery and couldn't come smooth things over the way he always did when Jacob and her father were at odds. The blood on Jacob's neck, a wound she didn't know how he got, made it so that Jasper had to leave the property entirely. The combination of rage in the air, mixed with blood, weakened his control considerably. Esme had forced Jasper to leave, had forced Emmett to watch over the infuriated Rosalie and make sure she didn't kill Jack outside, and Alice was off with Jasper, trying to keep him from killing anything human or wolf while trying to see into the future enough to see what the consequences of this would be. Alice had lost sight of Renesmee's future the moment Jack imprinted, and she had been panicked, right about the same time that all the howling had sounded from the reservation.

Paul had delivered Renesmee safe and sound back into her mother's arms at the border, where they had already been waiting, her father having known from Paul's thoughtS what had happened. To say he had been unhappy would be a gross understatement. After the Alpha, the Beta, and Jack had shown up, it had all gone downhill, and was just sliding faster. Bella and Esme had stopped trying to intercede, except when they could tell the fight was bringing Renesmee on the verge of tears, which happened more than once. Seth's attempts at peacekeeping had fallen by the wayside, and Paul had never been one for talking much anyways. Three hours into this fight, the two simply flanked Jacob, the Beta and the Third constantly watching the Cullens and every time Renesmee risked a glance in that other room, everyone looked her way.

Everyone but Jacob and her father, that was. Those two were too busy screaming at each other.

Bella was staring at the two of them, looking as sick as Bella's perfect countenance would allow, and Renesmee wondered if it would be appropriate to pray for her mother to not feel like that. Of course, if God now thought that her requests weren't made with completely heartfelt intentions, then maybe he wouldn't listen. Perhaps he had stopped listening entirely. Perhaps he had never listened in the first place and this entire imprint was a product of a genetic predisposition to be drawn towards an optimum mate. Stranger things than that had happened in nature.

To be honest, Renesmee was more interested in having a friend first, since she never really had had one of those before. Not one just for her. Unfortunately she had given him back, and it hurt to think that maybe God and the man sitting outside (because he wasn't allowed anywhere near her everyone in her family said), would both be mad at her for doing that. But it wasn't that she had wanted to, more that she had felt she needed to, so maybe she should pray again and clarify?

The little girl tried to sit very still, not at all sure at this point what to do.

"My daughter's in there having a _religious crisis_, Jacob!" Edward snarled, the angriest that Renesmee had ever heard him. "She's having a religious crisis at _eight years old_, because of you and your ridiculous demands! And if that's the result of one hour left alone with you dogs, then Renesmee isn't coming near any of you again! Including _that one_ outside!"

"Edward, please…" Bella started to say, but Jacob cut her off with a snarl of his own, deeper and more resonant.

"_That one_ is my _brother_, leech," Jacob growled back. "And don't start in on him for something he can't control. Jack is a good man, and you know that! He saved my life, he saved Collin's life, and he was willing to go nose to nose with another Alpha to protect me. He's loyal as hell, and he doesn't deserve you treating him like a fucking criminal for this!"

Edward snapped his teeth, leaning in towards Jacob, although Esme had her hand on his arm to restrain him if need be. "You admitted yourself that he almost turned on her! And look at your own self in the mirror! That could have been my daughter!"

"Technically, that shit was my fault," Seth waggled his hand uncomfortably, but shut his mouth at a hard look from Jacob.

"You know, pulling thoughts from people's heads when they're still trying to decide what happened and jumping to conclusions is bullshit, Edward," Jacob growled. "Things aren't that cut and dry when it comes to imprinting, and you know that. He's a good man and you can't do this to him! You can't do it to Nessie! Do you have any idea what you're taking away from her?"

"Less than I'll be giving her, mutt. I'm not turning my child over to someone who thinks of her as a _mate_," her father snapped back. "In three and a half years she'll be fully matured, and Renesmee has barely had a childhood as it is. I'm not throwing away what's left so that a stranger can have a child bride!"

"What the fuck are you _talking_ about, Edward?"

"Imprinting is to ensure a genetic match-"

"We don't know that, Edward," Seth cut in, his handsome face scrunched unhappily. "Especially since Nessie isn't Quileute. Jack himself told me this morning he's too old to imprint, so it probably shocked the hell out of him too. To be honest, we're not sure why Jack imprinted on her."

"I don't care _why_, Seth," Edward seethed, his fangs showing a little as he continued to glare at Jacob. "Every single one of you is dangerous, being connected to you is dangerous, and I want him gone. That one is never allowed near my daughter again, or I will kill him. Or I might just let Emmett and Rose do it right now."

Outside, Rosalie grinned and took a step forward, only halted when Esme barked out for her to stop, and only because Emmett had a hold of her arm. Jack never looked up from the ground he was staring at.

"Edward," Bella tried again, "Jacob, please, calm down-"

"How many times do I have to fucking _tell_ you this shit?" Jacob blew up in frustration. "You can't separate a wolf and his imprint! You don't know how tightly they're imprinted, _they_ don't even know how tightly they're imprinted, and there's the chance that you could hurt Ness. What's done is done, it can't be taken back now. But you attacking Jack, _if I let you_, would only hurt her! Nessie is Pack now, whether you like it or not, and I'm not letting _anything_ hurt her."

"We're her parents, Jake," Bella said in her musical voice, although she was casting concerned looks at Edward. "Of course Renesmee's safety is of our utmost concern."

"That's why it's too dangerous to let your wolf around her," her father insisted quickly, but there was a strangled note to his voice, and Renesmee leaned in again to peer at the arguing adults. Seth tried to give her a smile, but Paul merely looked at her tiredly and then looked back at her aunt and uncle.

"Do either of you know how many times Claire has gotten sick since her parents tried to keep her away from Quil?" Jacob snarled. "Do you have any clue what that did to him or the rest of us? Like it or not, we're all connected Edward, and I will _not_ let you hurt her by keeping her from us! I _won't_!"

The Alpha sounded much more aggressive than Renesmee could ever remember hearing him, more territorial. It took Renesmee a moment to realize that it was because that's exactly what was happening right now. This was a territory war between her father and Jacob, only the territory war was over whom had rights to decide what happened to her. Traditionally that would be her parents, but the vampire world had never been a traditional one. And Renesmee, for all her human blood, was half vampire. Being imprinted on was strange, very strange, but was it any stranger than blood with cereal or limbs that grew three times faster than they should? Renesmee had always been strange, different, and unique. She was not so blind to reality to think that was a good thing.

Renesmee had always been defined by who she was, the half-vampire child of Edward and Bella Cullen. She was smart, but not really smarter than any other relatively intelligent person who was immersed in a quality education. She simply developed faster, and it made her seem smarter than she was. No, Renesmee was a half-breed, the only one in this continent, and a born Cullen, the only one of those as well since Carlisle, and that was the extent of how she had ever defined herself. But now she was an imprint. Now she was part of a Pack, Jacob's Pack, a Pack with eleven wolves and five other imprints. Sixteen people that she was tied to indefinitely now, because she was a part of them. Her own group, her own clique, her own place to belong. It was almost too good to be true.

And her father was going to take it from her before it ever happened.

The little girl made a habit of being brave, but when it occurred to her that she was about to lose sixteen possible friends instead of just one, Renesmee's eyes filled with tears. Her father heard her silent wordless grief at the same time Jacob must have smelled her tears, because both rounded on her, looking equally upset. So she quickly wiped her eyes and gave them both her bravest smile. Being imprinted on was kind of scary, the unknown was outside waiting for her, but Renesmee was pretty sure that she'd rather be scared for a while if it meant that she wouldn't be so lonely anymore. Taking a deep breath, Renesmee knew what it was that she needed to do. The little girl stood up and walked over to the living room where the adults were still snarling back and forth at each other.

"Renesmee," Bella said gently, holding out her arms and hugging her daughter to her hip. "I know this is upsetting you, so let's go to the cottage. Edward, we can all think things over, nothing has to be decided today."

Renesmee gave her mother a little apologetic smile, and her father was already tight jawed at her thought process. "Mommy? I was hoping that I would be able to talk to Jacob for a moment, please. I have some questions that I wanted to ask him, and you always told me not to wait in the pursuit of knowledge."

"Don't use our words against us to get your own way, Renesmee," Edward said sternly. "Just ask."

"I'm sorry, Daddy. May I speak to Jacob?"

It was obvious that he didn't want to say yes, but the Alpha was looking as full of belligerence as she'd ever seen him. Her father wasn't one for extended confrontations with those he considered friends, especially when Seth was involved, although Jacob always seemed to be able to get her father riled up even when he wasn't mad to begin with. Right now the bronze haired vampire wasn't happy, but he did back off a few steps, and when her mother took his arm, the pair drew back even further. Esme took a step away, and at Bella's pointed look, Seth and Paul also withdrew, leaving Jacob and Renesmee as alone as they were going to get.

The huge man was shaking he was so angry, but when she reached for his hand, Jacob immediately forced himself calmer. Jacob knelt down and placed her palm against his bared chest, right where his heart was, and Renesmee blinked when her hand against his skin, something so familiar, suddenly made her feel so much better than it ever had. It was as if the stress of right now was eclipsed by the fact that Jacob was there, and the sheer reassurance of this contact with him was startling.

Her surprise carried through her hand and Jacob gave her a kind smile.

"You're Pack now, Nessie," Jacob told her gently. "You're one of my Pack's imprints, and that connects us." She didn't understand, so he settled down on his heels, still taller than her. "The Pack is the lifeblood of our people, Ness, but the imprints are the heartbeat that keeps that lifeblood pumping. Each imprint bolsters the Pack and gives us new reason and new motivation to be stronger. A stronger Pack means a stronger Alpha, and I can already tell the difference, honey. Just in you being you, I'm better than I was yesterday. I have you to thank for it, and it binds me to you as your Alpha, to protect you and to keep you close."

But Jacob had always done that.

"Yes, and now I know why, Nessie. You belong with us. You always did, tonight just solidified it," That statement was meant for her parents, who were standing a few feet back from her, and before the shouting could start again, Renesmee quickly spoke up.

"Can an imprint be broken, Jacob?"

He frowned, glanced quickly at her parents and then back at her. "Every imprint is different, Ness, and I can't honestly say it couldn't be done," he admitted unhappily. "But I won't ask Jack to do that," Jacob added sternly. "I tried to weaken the imprint bond between me and Samantha, to stuff it down until I couldn't feel it anymore, and it hurt her, Nessie. It completely bottled up her emotions, and made her a wreck. The backlash on her emotions was bad, Nessie, and it took me a couple months of soothing out the imprint bond between us for her rawer edges to heal up and for her to feel somewhat normal again. Honey, Samantha's a pretty hard nut to crack… and you're different, sweeter, more sensitive to things." At her crushed look, Jacob instinctively hovered closer. "No Ness, not in a bad way, not like that. How Sims is isn't necessarily a good thing, you're much better the way you are. But when it comes down to it, you're just so young, and it wouldn't be a good idea to try."

"And you know this for a fact," her father spoke up disapprovingly, and Jacob growled.

"Do you want me to get Samantha over here and have _her_ explain it to you, since you won't listen to me?" he snapped back. "Do you want her to tell you what it was like for her to be sobbing in a room full of people for no reason at all? She hated my guts and she still cried for a solid day because of it, and that was just me trying to close down the imprint bond, not break it entirely."

"I get sick when Cass is too far away," Paul suddenly rumbled from the other side of the room. "Have from the very beginning. And Claire used to bawl every time Quil left, to the point she would get colicky from the stress of it. The imprints are all different, and without Jack and Ness being around each other, we won't know how it affects them."

"It might be less, Edward," Seth brought up, "Ness is a half vampire, so if Jack only imprinted on the human half of her, it might be a weaker imprint and less involved."

"Or it could go the opposite," Jacob added in brutal honestly. "We won't know unless they get to spend time together."

Edward was grinding his teeth, and Renesmee looked at him. "Daddy? You can hear his thoughts, so you'll _know_ if he's a danger to me."

Her father didn't answer right away, and then his frown turned even deeper. "He thinks in Quileute, Renesmee. I don't speak that language, and so I don't know what he's saying."

That seemed to take the Pack by surprise, and Seth shared a glance with Paul. "Huh," the Beta said, blinking. "Well…That means you'll have to just trust us."

"It's _him_ I don't trust," Edward said sternly, "Not you, Seth."

The Beta shrugged, and then gave Edward a grin. "Well, I guess you could say that, but it's kind of bullshit. We're all Jake's wolves, and that means we operate by what he allows. Saying you won't trust Jack around Ness is like saying you think Jake would condone abusive behavior to a child, and that's not our Alpha. I gotta be honest, old friend, that kind of pisses me off."

Edward stared at Seth, then at Bella and Esme, both of which seemed to be wavering on the issue. Renesmee's father threw up his hands in disgust. "Am I the _only_ one that finds it unsuitable for a man that old to be allowed to view an _eight year old child_ as his _mate_?"

"Of course not, Edward," Esme said soothingly, "But as Jacob said, this may not be that cut and dry."

"But does he?" Bella suddenly asked, looking at Jacob. Renesmee could see that her mother was on the line on this part of it. "How does he view her? Because I don't like the idea of a stranger thinking my daughter is his possession, Jacob. She's mine."

"Ours," Edward added.

"Ours too," Jacob threw back, and then Renesmee cringed. The shouting was coming back, she could tell, her father and Jacob could fight for years if given the opportunity and something they each felt strongly and oppositely on. So once again she interceded before the adults could get back into it more heatedly.

"Jacob, may I meet him? I know we technically met at the party, but may I speak with him?"

"Of course, Nessie," Jacob said as Edward simultaneously growled, "_No_." Jacob growled back wordlessly, but Renesmee was getting that stubborn expression on her face, the one that looked so much like her mother's. She may have considered stomping her foot, but that wasn't proper, and even half-vampires didn't do things like that. But in the end, didn't they realize that Jack was her wolf, and she was his imprint? Didn't they get any say in this at all? Her father was glaring at her thoughts, unhappy with her logic, but Jacob however was grinning at her. Her hand was still on his heart, and Jacob could hear all of it. Renesmee blushed and quickly withdrew her hand, but Jacob caught it in his huge one. He said something to her in Quileute that she didn't understand, but Seth and Paul echoed it softly, and Seth winked at her once.

The door slammed open and Rosalie stomped into the room, Emmett trailing at her heels. "Edward, Bella, _please_ tell me that you're not going to let my only niece get pulled into this…_cult_," Rosalie stated in a supremely aggravated voice.

"Whenever you want some Kool-Aid, Blondie, just let me know," Jacob countered immediately, and Rosalie snapped her teeth at him. Emmett chuckled and then yawned, because vampire may not get tired but they did get bored.

"Are we going to kill each other or not?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her aunt's waist. "If not, I want to get back to Fallout."

"A videogame is more important to you than whether or not Renesmee is assaulted by some ancient canine freak?" Rosalie asked him, looking shocked, and Emmett just shrugged and pointed out the window.

"Ancient canine freak he may be, but we were standing out there openly threatening him. The dude's just been staring at a rock this whole time. Sorry Ness, I think you got the slow wolf."

"Don't make fun of him," Jacob growled, looking truly pissed, but Bella had gone to the window, her golden eyes worried.

"Jake…," Bella said softly, and Jacob rose at the sound of her voice, leaving Renesmee and walking to Bella's side. Edward glared at that but Jacob ignored him. "Jake, I don't want Renesmee to get hurt, but neither option seems like a good idea. If tonight was just an accident…Can you promise me that she won't get hurt? I won't ever have another child and I want what's best for her. I remember being away from Edward, the pain it caused, and I don't want that for her. But if he's dangerous..."

Jacob didn't answer right away, and Edward growled again, but then Bella shot Renesmee's father a frustrated look and Edward's growl cut off mid sound. He looked a touch hurt, and Renesmee realized that her mother must have extended a shield over Jacob, blinding her father to the wolf's thoughts. It was a sign of trust, and Renesmee let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. As long as Jacob and her mother were still trusting each other, the treaty would stand, no matter how much fussing either side did.

"Bells, I can't promise her being here with you guys won't get her hurt," Jacob said, and when the vampires all went still at that, Jake shrugged. "You're our allies, but there are other Packs out there, and Nessie is a half vampire. I don't think any of those Packs would stop if they ran into her. I can promise you that if something were to hurt her, it wouldn't be Jack. Jack…he's kind of got a fucked up history, got run out of the Pack a long long time ago for not hurting vampires, so that part of Ness is safe. He was confused, he thought I would be angry that he had imprinted on a half-vampire, and he was almost killed by his old pack for protecting a vampire and the damage that caused. He was scared, Bells, but he knows better now. Listen, Samantha bugs the hell out of me half the time, but I would throw myself in front of a fucking bomb to keep her safe. It's fucked up but it's how we're wired, all of us. Jack won't hurt her."

"What about…" Bella trailed off uncomfortably, and Jacob frowned.

"Do you think that I would stand by and let anyone abuse any of my imprints, Bells?" Jacob asked softly. "That I would let anyone do anything to a child and not kill them? If you truly think that, if you think we're the kinds of people that could do that, then I'm not sure why we're even allies to begin with. I get it, to you he's a stranger, but he's as much a part of me as any of my wolves. Either you trust me or you don't."

"Jake, that's not fair-"

"Either you trust me or not, Bells," Jacob repeated softly, looking as hurt as Edward had a moment ago. He looked down, and when he looked back up, a different Jake was in Jacob Black's eyes. An old Jake, one that never really had a chance, one Jacob Black the Alpha would never get back again. "We are stronger right now than you are. If you trust me, if we're still Jake and Bells, then this treaty stands. If you don't, then I don't see the fucking point. We'll leave you guys alone, but I'm calling the truce off."

"You'd call the truce over this damn wolf-" Rosalie growled, and the old Jake slipped away, leaving the Alpha in his place. Jacob Black nodded curtly.

"I'd call the truce over Renesmee," Jacob said in a voice of steel, but his eyes were still on Bella. "I'm sorry, Bells. I've always said that I've got your back to the end, but this isn't just me. Tear me up as bad as you want to, but you leeches aren't hurting my Pack, and that includes Renesmee now. She's yours but she's mine too."

Bella drew herself up, then looked at Jacob and the other wolves. "We need to talk as a family, without you here. Please leave, Jacob."

Jacob looked like he was going to fight it, and then nodded curtly. "We'll be outside."

"Jacob, we need time," Bella started, but Jacob shook his head. She growled but he glared, and finally she threw her own hands up in aggravation. "Why are you doing this? Are you trying to ruin everything?"

"Bells," Jacob exhaled, but then he smiled. But instead of for her, his smile was for Renesmee. "I think that maybe this is exactly what we needed, what Ness needs, and what Jack needs. But yeah, you guys talk. We'll be waiting outside." With a wink at her, Jacob left with his wolves behind him, although Paul gave the room full of vampires a look that she had never seen him give them before. It was calculating, as if he was weighing the dangers, and then he looked at her. The look he gave her said that he wasn't sure about her, but he wasn't sure about leaving her, the Pack's newest imprint, in a room full of vampires. A room full of her own family. For some reason, that completely floored Renesmee.

And so, as the wolves waited and Renesmee tried to read in her little chair, they talked. Carlisle came home, Alice did as well, although Jasper thought it best to stay away for longer, assuming that there wasn't a war. If there was, Jasper wanted to kill Jack first. Rosalie and Emmett began squabbling over who had dibs, and while Edward sat and glared, his jaw clenched, Carlisle told Bella everything he had every known about the wolves, and imprinting, and what he thought this could mean. In the end, Alice sighed and stated that she didn't know why they were talking about it anymore, Renesmee had just disappeared from her completely. Rosalie called them all idiots, Alice wished that a nice well-dressed and younger wolf would have imprinted on Renesmee instead, and Esme and Carlisle wondered if this meant that the coven would never be able to leave the area? Emmett played Fallout, and Renesmee's mother spent an hour upstairs with her father, talking more privately.

When they came down again, the decision had been made. The treaty would stand, no one would kill Jack…assuming absolutely nothing ever happened to Renesmee because of this. At the first hint of violence, aggression, or inappropriate behavior towards a child, they _would_ kill Jack, and the rest of the La Push Pack too for good measure. Renesmee wasn't sure if that was a serious threat or not, but her instincts said that it was. Renesmee was to answer in complete truthfulness any questions about the Pack, Jack or otherwise, when asked. And lastly, all visitations were to be scheduled by and supervised by the Cullens until otherwise stated. Grimacing as if they had were doing something they really didn't want to do, Edward and Bella Cullen went outside to "meet" Renesmee's wolf.

She had a wolf now. It was very exciting, and not a little bit frightening. Still afraid that they might take him away from her, she tried her very best to sit still and not fidget at all. Finally, her father came back inside and knelt down in front of her. "Renesmee?" Edward said in a soft voice. "We've negotiated this with Jacob, but no matter what Jacob says, you don't have to do this."

"I know, daddy," she promised him, trying not to show how truly excited she was. Maybe it made her a bad person, knowing how upset so many of her family had become from this, and she never wanted anyone fighting about her. But she…she just had never prayed before for something and had it happen. And if God had given her a friend, it couldn't be bad, could it?

"Gifts from God are not always easy to understand, Renesmee," Edward explained gently. "But no, they aren't bad. Just make sure that you don't get confused as to what is a gift from God and what is a masked as gift by something else entirely. Sometimes when things seem to happen easily, quickly, and seem too good to be true, it is because they are." She didn't know what her father meant, but he smiled at her and took her hand. "You'll understand one day, Nessie. Now, would you like to meet this wolf? Perhaps he will speak to you, because he has refused to speak to your mother and me."

"Really?" Renesmee asked in surprise, and her father grunted in annoyance.

"Yes," Edward muttered. "_Really_."

And so they went together, her hand in his, her father getting her excited thoughts and her excited emotions at the same time, and Edward might have hated this through and through, but he loved his daughter. It was good to see her so happy about something, anything, Renesmee was so serious, so much of the time. It would be one of the hardest things he would ever do, letting go of his daughter's hand as they approached the spot the Pack waited, but Jacob was looking at Renesmee much the same as he had used to look at Bella, that sense of ownership that angered Edward as much as it reassured him. Edward Cullen had always resented Jacob Black taking what was his, but Jacob Black had always taken very good care of that which he took from Edward so easily.

Renesmee didn't notice this, didn't notice that her father and her mother and Jacob, her Alpha now, were all eyeing each other as if their dynamic had been forever changed. She didn't see Seth's kind smile, he had always adored her anyways, and for Seth it was good to feel another piece of their Pack puzzle settle into place. She didn't realize that Paul was watching her walk past him, his caramel eyes deeply protective because she was an imprint now, one of his own, and he'd have her back until the day he died. All she saw was the wolf behind them, shorter than the others, slimmer, his plain features marred by a deep scar running across his nose and onto his cheek. Equally plain brown eyes that raised to lock onto hers, and she froze for a moment, suddenly shy and uncertain.

Renesmee backed up a step, her hand resting on Paul's muscled forearm for balance. For the first time since she had met him, he didn't shift away from the contact. Worriedly, the little girl dropped her eyes, scuffing her small black shoe in the dirt.

She had wanted a friend, but what if he hadn't wanted to be friends with someone like her? What if he wouldn't want to talk to her? What if he thought she looked silly in her costume? She had taken the wings off, but she still had her antenna and looked less like a butterfly and more like a bug. What if he didn't like dancing or poetry or walking planks, and thought she was a silly, weird, half-vampire? What if he knew she ate bunnies? What if he found out who she really was and never wanted to talk to her ever again-?"

"Renesmee, he wouldn't be here if he didn't want to," Paul rumbled quietly, putting his hand on her head and carefully removing the antenna headband. "Jack doesn't talk a lot to any of us, but he's here because of you. It's nearly morning, we all stayed here all night for you."

The little girl nodded and shyly raised her eyes back to the wolf, who was still watching her silently. She opened her mouth, trying to think of the best thing to say, the best imprint meeting the wolf conversation, the perfect words to tell him how much she appreciated him imprinting on her, and how she would do her best to be a good imprint, within the constrictions her parents required of her. Unfortunately she didn't know how to say any of those things, and the only friends she had were friends with her parents first, friends in proxy. To be honest, she had never _needed_ to know how up until today. Her wolf, Jack, tipped his head, looking a touch confused as he waited for her to speak, but Renesmee…she just didn't know what to do.

Panicked, Renesmee turned and looked at her mother. "Mommy, I don't know how to make a friend," she whispered, tears of humiliation in her eyes.

Bella took a step forward, but Paul had already picked her up and had handed her to someone else, someone she didn't know. Strong arms, nearly as hard as her parents' limbs were, took her and lifted her up. He smelled like Jacob had, warm and safe and good. Good to be around. Maybe good to eat too.

Edward groaned at her sudden and second burst of panic, as Renesmee realized what she had thought. Her hand had been against his skin and her new friend now knew the worst thing about her, that she was akiller. Renesmee's eyes filled up with tears, and Edward stepped forward.

"Nessie," her father said gently as Renesmee jerked her hand off of Jack's neck, clamping her lips together tightly and looking up at him with watery eyes.

"I didn't mean it," she promised in a quivery voice, her wolf looking at her with an unreadable expression. "I didn't mean it, I promise. I'm sorry, I…you can set me down now if you want to, Mister Jack. I promise I won't try to eat you."

But he didn't set her down. Instead the wolf took her little hand in his huge one, and pressed it back to his neck. Then he made a soft reassuring noise on his throat and hiked her up higher in his arms, so that her face was near his pulse point. She could kill him before he could defend himself, and they both knew that. This wolf knew what she was, but he chose to trust her anyways.

If Jack had done otherwise, Edward and Bella Cullen would have ripped out his throat, no matter what might have happened.

Renesmee frozen in shock, and suddenly it was as if a floodgate burst in the little girl. Something she had built up inside shattered, and it hurt because it left her open and vulnerable, when she was so good at keeping herself so tightly clamped down. The flood of emotions scared her, and Renesmee's small arms clung to the neck of a stranger, a stranger who in picking her up once, who in accepting her at her worst from the very start, had caused that to happen. She was too young to understand why she was crying, too young to understand the breaking down of walls of her own making, was far too young to understand that sometimes crying was a good thing.

Sometimes the littlest people are the bravest of them all, and find out far too late that it's okay to just be little.

The ancient wolf hummed softly, a Quileute lullaby long since forgotten to his people, his imprint in his right arm and her face buried in his neck. And when she had finished crying, Jack handed her to her father wordlessly and he left without Jake's permission, because his imprint was a child and she had had enough for one night and it was better if he left. His Alpha followed him home, said a few words to the worried looking cowboy on the roof of the trailer, and then let Jack be.

Jack had always slept under the stars, or under the trailer, so that he could watch the world around him. But this time Jack drank his orange drink and laid down on the single lumpy mattress, and he stared at the ceiling instead, turning a worn stone over and over in his hand. Then Jack tucked his stone back in its leather wrappings, rolled onto his side, and he went to sleep. For the first time in this second, more painful life, Jack didn't bother to watch the sun rise, and when it did, he didn't try to ask his ancestors for forgiveness. They weren't going to give it, and maybe it was time he finally stopped asking.

The former Qa'al wasn't sure he trusted their opinions anymore anyway.


	8. Chapter 6

A/N Hello! I wanted to get everyone an update before Christmas. :) We have family in town so the next one won't be until after the New Year's. I feel like I need to put a content warning on this fic. I'm trying to write as non-creepy of a child imprint as I can, I'm also trying to write as realistic of one as I can, and that will lead to some scenes that will make the reader uncomfortable. So keep that in mind. Also, _Kwòlíyoť _meansQuileute, and Mel is susceptible to Christmas cookie bribes. ^.^ Thanks as always to my reviewers: _t_ _bairdy, EssaTheTwerp21, dirtychicken, Aleena Kiwiana, Manna1, EnglishVoice, katieklutz, laurazuleta18, moani-sama, MadToTheBone1, SARAH DB, garlauri, Roonani, LightIsPrecious, hilja, 82c10akaLynn, cylobaby, Buffyk0604, toalli, MargotTenser, Britt01, lionandlamblover, KerryH, ally leigh, chicadee74, The all mighty and powerfulM, HopefulHeartache, _and_ QahlanKwaiya._ You guys are wonderful! Have a happy holidays! ~mel

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Six

_The Council of Elders was not pleased._

_It had been many days, nearly two moons, and the Tlokwali hadn't returned with anything to feed Kwòlíyoť bellies, so many now swollen from starvation. The weakest of the women were growing sick, the strongest of the men growing desperate and fighting amongst themselves as their families suffered. One of the tribe's infants had died from weakness, when their mother's breast had gone dry from her own hunger, and a second was said to only be alive because she was an imprint, and as such was tied to the Tlokwali strength. T'sikáti himself had spent most of the last few days holding the child, the Alpha coaxing her to drink a mixture of water and finely ground root, the only thing they had left to give her. The last time the Kwòlíyoť people had suffered in such a way, the great Thunderbird had flown across the sky, bringing with it in its mighty talons a whale to feed them and allow them to survive._

_Qa'al had listened on the wind for many days and nights, but all he heard was the belly pangs of his people. _

_The Council of Elders had called T'sikáti and Qa'al before them, aware that the people would die if they were not fed soon. They were insisting that the Alpha take the remaining Tlokwali to attack the Makah and the Hoh, and if need be, the Quinault tribes, for there was food to be found in those villages, and the Kwòlíyoť people could survive this long winter. With sadness, Qa'al watched his oldest friend refuse the Council, knowing full well how deeply pained T'sikáti was right now. The Tlokwali were just as hungry, perhaps hungrier, than the others and everything they felt multiplied upon the Alpha's shoulders. His nature was to protect and feed his own, but the Tlokwali were gifted to share their spirits with the wolf, and it was a dishonor to steal food from others that needed it to survive, using the strength of the wolf to do so. _

_Should the Council insist upon a raid, T'sikáti would go, but he would not bring his wolves along to do as such. The ancestors may approve but the spirits of the Tlokwali would be angry, Qa'al had murmured to his Alpha. The wolf was not the coyote, it hunted its food, it did not steal it. None of them should do this thing._

_The Council did not like to hear this, but T'sikáti was holding firm, and as they fought, Qa'al closed his eyes and whispered his prayers to the ancestors to bring him guidance, to bring his Alpha guidance, to not let the fate of their people rest solely on T'sikáti shoulders. Qa'al understood the power that the Tlokwali possessed, how it could be used in ways that were abhorrent to him and his Alpha both, wondered if in hunger the Council had forgotten Utlapa and his greed. There were some things that had to be done, and some things that could never be done. There was a line that should not be crossed, and there was a single man who decided that line. Thankfully that man was not Qa'al. _

_The fishhook, as always, would do as the fish asked of him. _

_As Qa'al stood silently at his friend's shoulder, helping T'sikáti shape their world into what they believed it should be, Qa'al felt a pull on his senses. The newest in their Pack was deeply distraught, and Qa'al could hear the half-Makah youth's wordless fear echo in his mind. A swift glance at T'sikáti for permission, and Qa'al dipped his head to the Council, not bothering to ask _their_ permission before leaving them. The old wolf ignored the pains of hunger in his own belly as he strode outside, making sure to let the people see him standing tall and proud. The Tlokwali were the backbone of the people, and T'sikáti, the Beta, and Qa'al the backbone of the Tlokwali. It was important to show the people no weakness, so that they themselves felt strong. The bitter winter winds were cutting through the lands, drifting snow higher and causing the visibility to decrease for even wolf eyes. _

_"Qa'al!" the pup called from behind him, gaining the Third's attention as the pup trotted his way, visibly upset. "She's gone!"_

_There was only one 'she' that mattered to the pup in this village. The Tlokwali she-wolves did not pay attention to one as young and green as him, and could come and go without the pup's fear. But Tuktukadi was different. Even if the half-Makah youth had been accepted into their people because of his lineage, his full blooded sister had not, and the pup was desperately protective of Tuktukadi. The pup's words had drawn attention, and Qa'al frowned, taking the pup's shoulder and turning him, walking him towards the outskirts of the village. This was a desperate time for the Kwòlíyoť people, and there had been murmurs that the seasons had only grown worse since the Makah woman had come into their midst. T'sikáti and Qa'al had made it clear that Tuktukadi was under Tlokwali protection, but it would not do to have the people know that she was causing more problems, especially when Qa'al was needed in other places. _

_The pup knew this, knew he had to be patrolling their lands right now, knew that the Cold Ones were just as hungry as the people were. His expression fearful and face ducked respectfully, he waited until they were out of eyesight and earshot before murmuring over the howling of the increasingly strong winds. "Qa'al, I'm sorry. I have been watching her, and I don't know how she slipped away. But the temperature is dropping and it is near nightfall…"_

_The pup trailed off unhappily, and Qa'al nodded, his eyes clouded. If the Makah woman failed to find shelter, suitable shelter for weather such as this, she would die. But this was not a time that T'sikáti should have to stand alone, and they could not risk the people by pulling another wolf off of patrol to look for the woman. Qa'al stood where he was, watching his people scurry to the shelter of their longhouses, and his frown deepened. Even here they were at risk of the cold. It was possible that the Makah woman was dead already._

_A deep twisting in his gut left Qa'al nearly ill at the thought. Last night Tuktukadi had smacked him and called him a fool, but she had also slept with her face buried into his chest and her arms wrapped around his waist for warmth. Instead of sleeping, Qa'al had spent the evening running his hands through her long hair, thinking of all the ways he could try to seduce her, to show her that his affection for her was in earnest. As much as he teased her, Qa'al cared for her a little more every day, and for one as old as him that meant something. Qa'al had seen a lot of people die in his time in the world, accepted that it could and would happen. But…he wasn't ready for her to die just yet._

_Even as he ordered the pup back to patrol, Qa'al's decision was made. As the Third slipped outside of the village, T'sikáti accepted Qa'al's silent apology for abandoning him, although Qa'al knew that the Alpha would never have asked for the apology in the first place. There was nothing that Qa'al had ever done that was beyond T'sikáti's forgiveness, so apologies were rarely needed. Plus, the Alpha was fond of the Makah woman too, even if she only had eyes for Qa'al. Be wary, the Alpha warned. The Cold Ones were closer today than normal, T'sikáti could feel it in his bones. _

_The fishhook would be careful, but he would catch something else tonight than Cold One, if he was able._

_If he was not, then the fish would join him in his hunt. _

_As the man took a final step, his body rolling into his wolf form, Qa'al expressed his appreciation. It was good to have the Alpha at his side to hunt, but Qa'al needed to hunt his prey quickly. The cold might not affect him as much, but it frosted inside of his nostrils, and Qa'al worried even as he sneezed. It made no sense that Tuktukadi would choose today of all days to run, because it was a death sentence. Perhaps she had been fooled by the calmer weather that morning. Perhaps she simply no longer cared. She had made it clear that she was deeply unhappy, no matter how well she slept in his arms. The brindle wolf raised his muzzle in mutual unhappiness, his eerie howl echoing across the land. _

_His was not an easy hunt, and Qa'al could not run off his growing frustrations, instead trotting through the snow as he systematically searched their lands, and then further beyond. Her scent was hidden well by the weather, and as he ranged outwards, the temperature dropped even more and his heart sank. Far to the north, his Beta pushed against his senses, expressing support and sympathy, which Qa'al acknowledged briefly before refocusing on the task at hand. He found a track, and then another, but the woman was a bird today and seemed to have flown away, perhaps higher than this old wolf could jump. _

_His jaws snapped at the snow that was killing his people. _

_Qa'al kept his thoughts closed off from his Packmates, unwilling to worry the pup more when he caught the scent of Cold One in the air. It had come and gone hours ago, and had headed further east into the mountains. Anger filled him at that, to lose her to her own stubbornness and pride was one thing, but to lose her to their most hated enemy was much worse. If she was dead from the cold, he would perform the proper ceremonies of her people, here where she could be at rest somewhere other than Kwòlíyoť land. If she was dead from fangs smaller and more delicate than his own, Qa'al would hunt down the Cold One and tear it to shreds._

_T'sikáti pushed past the wall that Qa'al had built around himself, reminding him once again to be careful. The Alpha was hunting as well, and he believed she was still alive. What did the ancestors believe? _

_The ancestors had no interest in a Makah woman, but the spirits were easier to speak to when in this form. Wordlessly they guided Qa'al away from his path, up a steep rocky incline and to a small fissure in the rock that had been covered carefully with branches. Snuffing deeply, Qa'al inhaled the scent of his Packmate's sister, smelled her fear and her discomfort, and he slid back to human form, kicking aside the branches. His broad shoulders barely allowed him to slip through the fissure, leaving him inside a narrow cave as wide as his arm span and only half as tall. In the far back of it, a black haired woman huddled in a ball, her lips tinged with blue as she shook with cold. _

_Qa'al was shaking too, although for another reason entirely. The cave reeked of the Cold Ones. _

_"Go away, Qa'al," Tuktukadi managed to say between chattering teeth, even as Qa'al crawled to her. "I am escaping you this time. Leave me be." She snarled at him when he reached her, and he snarled back, a deep angry sound that frightened her as it rumbled through the cave. Her shoulders were covered by a wrap made of skins that Qa'al himself had given her, and it had frozen stiff from being dampened and then exposed to more cold. He jerked it off of her, knowing that it was killing her._

_"You little fool," Qa'al growled in her own tongue. "Is your life so terrible that you would trade it for nothing? A few more hours and you would have frozen to death." _

_"I would rather suffer death here for one night then suffer a thousand deaths to my honor every day in your village," Tuktukadi told him proudly, despite her shivering. "I will not go back, Qa'al. I would rather die." Her voice was roughened with the wind, but her eyes were starting to glaze over, and Qa'al let out a curse. _

_"You still might," he decided, keeping his head ducked as he rose to his knees. He jerked her into his lap, and Tuktukadi made a sound of indignant anger when he started pulling her soft deerskin skirts off, ones just as frozen as her wrap had been. When she fought him with her deer hide shirt, he nipped her shoulder in rebuke. She tried to hit him, but her hands weren't working from the cold. Qa'al jerked her around on his lap and bit her again, this time much harder on the nape of her neck, and it frightened him that she didn't cry out in anger at his presumption of his dominance. In fact she had barely felt it at all. He was losing her._

_Keeping her back to his chest and her bottom in his lap, Qa'al curled around her, legs and arms hugging her tightly. She was barely warmer to the touch than the air around her, and her body was racked with cold that he knew had to hurt her, but she never once cried out. She was proud, this owl, a warrior in her own right and he considered leaving her be. It would hurt him, but if this was the death she had chosen, it was not his right to tell her no. But as he pressed every inch of his heated skin to her, he could smell her fear. She knew she was dying, and despite her brave words, she was afraid. _

_"If you are a slave, then you are a stupid one, Tuktukadi," Qa'al stated against her ear, trying to goad her anger into keeping her from falling asleep. Often those that slept in the cold never woke up again. "There is the scent of Cold One all over this place. Instead of me, it could have been it wrapped around you right now."_

_"Both of you bite, both cause pain," she managed to chatter back. "I see no difference. Let me go, Qa'al." _

_The old wolf growled at her again, making free with his hands over her front, deliberately upsetting her more, "No, Tuktukadi. For a year I have held you whenever you felt like it. Tonight _I_ feel like it. You are mine."_

_"I am not your slave, Qa'al!" she cried out, her words angry despite her lack of struggling now, and Qa'al nipped her neck again, nuzzling her even as he shifted to encompass her more completely. _

_"No, Kadi, but you _are_ mine," his decided, taking her ice cold fingers and curling his hot ones around them. "You have made sure of it, every day. You test my affection, my interest every day, and you knew when you ran that I would chase you. You are only fortunate that the Cold One didn't catch you first."_

_"Tlokwali, Cold Ones, you are all the same to me, Qa'al. Your fight is with each other, not me," she whispered. "The Cold Ones have treated me no worse than the Tlokwali, both are demons. What is one traded for the other?" _

_"I am not a demon, Kadi," Qa'al told her quietly, feeling her skin finally starting to warm beneath his. "I am a man with a heart beating blood through my chest. Am I not human to you at all? Are you so afraid of me that where a man stands, you see only the wolf?"_

_The Makah woman hissed in anger, once more struggling. Qa'al let her, because anything, anything to keep her awake. "Trapped as I am, I can see nothing, Qa'al. But I am afraid of _nothing_." _

_Now that was far from the truth, and he laughed at her for it. "Says the rabbit that trembles in the wolf's jaws," Qa'al chuckled, goading her even more. She could hate him tomorrow, if her anger kept her alive today. Tuktukadi was strong for a woman, but hunger and cold had taken much of it away from her, so it was easy enough for Qa'al to turn her again on his lap. He gave her a challenging look, tracing his hands along her backside, daring her to fight this. If she said no, he would stop, but her eyes were heating up along with her skin. _

_If she was the type that needed a lover to prove his worth, so be it. _

_"I have hunted for you, and clothed you with skins I have taken, and protected you from those who would have made your life far more painful. I have catered to your demands, Kadi, each and every one," Qa'al reminded her, letting his eyes warm her flesh along with his hands, grateful that his body heat was already filling this tiny cave, surrounding them both. "Another would have taken you to bed already or found a more willing match. You claim slave, but in truth you have never been treated as such. We have never bedded you against your will, we have never beaten you, nor even asked you to do for us that you did not already do for yourself. Is it a demon than holds you now, little owl?" he asked gently. "Is that truly all you see?"_

_She shivered, and Qa'al pressed her belly to his own, tracing the lines of her ribs with his thumbs. Two ribs on either side. Of the women in the tribe, only the she-wolves showed less, all others showed more. He took care of her, and she knew it. And still, she was afraid of him most of all._

_"You are still a demon, Qa'al," Tuktukadi finally said, tucking her cold face against his neck. "But the others, with the exception of my brother, are greater demons than you." Having lost once again, she buried herself into his body, shaking with the cold and pliant in his arms. _

_"Then I will have to show you otherwise," he decided quietly, his lips curling into a small smile. He was a patient hunter, and his prey was at her weakest now, expecting to be caught when she was helpless. So he laid her down, and he warmed the rest of her with his hands and his mouth, and took nothing for himself. He wanted all of her, but only when she wanted all of him as well. _

_Outside, the winds blew viciously as T'sikáti silently guarded the cave, his sandy fur covered in snow. _

* * *

When the shock of imprinting wore off, Jack was left with a sense of deep guilt. No one, especially a child, deserved to be saddled with a wolf as damaged as him.

Jack could feel Renesmee to the north, a presence around his senses that constantly tugged at him, her strongest feelings hitting him unexpectedly in waves. Thirst, confusion, thirst, excitement, thirst, loneliness, _thirst_. Sometimes the barrage of her emotions was hard to handle, especially for an old wolf not so good at differentiating between his own emotions on any given day. Jack had spent the first two days in bed, refusing to leave the trailer until he managed to successfully fight his natural instinct to react to every one of his imprint's emotions, to go to her and offer her reassurance, to stick his arm in her mouth if that's what it took for her to not thirst so badly that his own throat hurt from it, now constantly raspy and raw.

Rico spent those two days parked out in a lawn chair by the door, an easy smile on his mouth as he told Jack dirty stories through the trailer walls, both of them knowing full well that the vampire had promised the wolf to kill him if Jack tried to leave before the wolf could control himself. By the third day Jack had managed to successfully clamp down the urge to run to his imprint's side, the rolling waves of her emotions irregular but constant, allowing him to start getting used to her.

'Used to her' was a relative term. Jack felt like his whole life had turned inside out on him.

Jack's Alpha was imprinted and he empathized Jack's struggles, as much as the Alpha could. The Alpha wasn't imprinted on a half-vampire or a child, and such his understanding was limited, but Jake knew that it took some time to adjust to the change. Jack had enough trouble adjusting to his new life as Pack as it was, and imprinting had shaken him deeply, so the Alpha had pulled him from patrol until the imprint settled in. The imprint wasn't a bad thing, it just took some getting used to, the Alpha had reminded Jack, his words echoing what Jack had told so many other wolves over so many lifetimes.

The ancient wolf wasn't so sure.

Yes, it was hard to get used to, but more than that Jack had worried deeply what his imprint was getting through the bond from _his_ side. There had been a time where Jack had played with Pack bonds as effortlessly as his Alpha did now, but Jack was…not who he had used to be. He was no longer equipped to manipulate the bonds that rested between Pack and imprints, and had feared his own issues would be thrust upon her. Jake had apparently been worried about the same, so he had checked up on Renesmee and let Jack know that she only felt the smallest draw towards Hoquiam and nothing more.

That had been a deep relief, enough so that on morning four, Jack stopped hiding in his trailer. Then again, Paul had stopped by, a sympathetic Quil and a slightly amused Jared at the Third's heels. Paul had ignored the cowboy on the lawn chair watching the three with thinly veiled eagerness, stating that if Jack didn't get his ass outside to tell them goodbye before they went back up to Alaska, then the three were killing the leech and dragging Jack out of hiding.

Rico had found that deeply amusing.

Later the fourth night (after Jack had spent the whole day under his apple tree, telling a dead woman that he still loved her, and that he was sorry), the Alpha had come around and mentioned that of all the La Push Pack, only Jack's imprinting seemed so drastically unbalanced. Across the board, the wolves always felt more through the bond, but not this much more, and the imprint this much less. The Alpha thought that Jack had unconsciously manipulated the bond between himself and Renesmee to protect her, or maybe Jake had done it and not realized it. Either way, the little girl was protected from the fact that Jack was...Jack. The ancient wolf didn't know, but he _did_ know that the Alpha was trying to hide how desperately Jake wanted to know how to do the same. Out of respect for his Alpha, Jack did his best to hide the fact that Jake's rejection of his own imprint disturbed Jack deeply.

Despite his own feelings on imprinting, Jake seemed to think that Jack's imprinting could be a good thing, as long as everyone tried to get along. The Alpha had made Jack promise to be on his best behavior come Saturday, the set day for Jack to see his imprint each week. By Friday, Jack had learned that his imprinting was like the ocean tide, predictable only that it would come and go, sometimes leaving him filled with her emotions, and sometimes sweeping his own emotions away, leaving him raw and empty inside.

The imprint wasn't supposed to work this way. Then again, he was too old to imprint and she was a half-vampire.

Friday afternoon a cold front swept the state, freezing the ground solid and bringing snow on the wind. The winter was going to be hard this year, but Jack had lived through harder. The horses however needed to eat in the coldest winter months, when the green Washington grasses no longer grew, so Jack and Rico had headed south to a farm outside of Hoquiam to get a load of hay and bring it back with them. They had several lean-tos behind the trailer, two of which the horses lived in, and one of which housed their riding equipment, their feed supplies, and one particularly traumatized Mexican jack rabbit. Rico had been awfully good about leaving the subject of Jack's imprinting alone, but it was only a matter of time before he brought it up. As Jack pulled bales of dark green hay off of the trailer and tossed them up to the vampire atop the growing stack, Rico decided enough time had passed for him to breech the subject.

"So, you going up there tomorrow, Jackie boy? To the coven?"

Jack nodded silently at his friend, and Rico gave a short little laugh. "Good luck with that. I went snooping last night," Rico admitted. "They've got their place guarded like it's Fort Knox. They sure don't trust you, old friend. Of course, if a thousand year old wolf imprinted on _my_ baby girl, I might have already torn your throat out," the vampire added.

"You are too old to make a half-breed child, Cold One," Jack muttered in Quileute, muscling another hay bale up to Rico, who grabbed it and stacked it higher. "If you were reckless enough to create one in the first place."

"Is that a hint of disapproval in your voice?" Rico chuckled. "Jackie, Jackie, you're _imprinted_ now. Aren't you supposed to be fawning all over the source of your imprinting? I would think that Bella and Edward Cullen would be your newest best friends."

The ancient wolf grunted at the mocking in Rico's voice and one-handed the next bale up to the vampire. "I was Tlokwali," Jack reminded Rico in a hard voice, and the vampire paused in his stacking to smirk down at him.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that I have no respect for a human that willingly turns herself into a Cold One," Jack growled flatly, pushing aside a bale of hay that had split open when he had picked it up too hard. "I have less respect for a lover who allows it. The fact that they created a child before doing so is worse."

"But she's your imprint," Rico reminded him again, seeming to find the situation deeply interesting, if not a little amusing.

The ancient wolf paused a moment, and then grabbed another bale. "I should not have imprinted on her," Jack finally stated, again speaking in Quileute, which the vampire had learned enough of over the centuries to follow what the wolf was saying. When Jack was especially distressed, he lapsed into his native tongue, although both friends made an effort to speak in English as much as possible so to pick up the current language trends of the area. They stuck out enough without Rico sounding like a twelfth century Spaniard and Jack an eleventh century Native American.

"Ahh, but you did," Rico reminded him, and Jack grew angry at the soft voices in his head, murmuring their displeasure with him. Yes, he knew, and he wasn't the happiest with _them_ right now either.

"I am old, and I am no longer Tlokwali," Jack repeated in frustration. "I have too many years on my shoulders already, and from what the Alpha tells me, she most likely will be immortal. I have nothing to give an imprint, not one such as her. I had looked forward to serving my Alpha and then, when the time came, asking his help to stop phasing. It has been difficult but he has already started, his strength allowing me to spend less time as a wolf every day. My life should be nearing its close, should have closed centuries ago. What little I had left to give, I have given it all to my Alpha. I had never thought for a moment this would happen."

"If you want to die so badly, old friend," Rico chuckled, plopping down on a hay bale and lighting a cigarette, "All you have to do is ask. I'm much faster than growing old, and I've wanted to give you a good bite since the day we first met. You're the most self-restraint that I've ever exhibited."

"That and the knowledge I may bite you first," Jack reminded the vampire drolly, his frown softening just a touch as Rico sighed dramatically.

"True, oh so true. Jackie boy, let me get this straight. You're angry at little boy Cullen and his child bride for creating your imprint, and you have no respect for vampires besides yours truly, but you chose a half-vampire as a mate. Are you angry at them for making her or are you angry at yourself for choosing her? Or are you angry at her for existing in the first place?"

"She is a child," Jack muttered. "A child does not ask to exist, they are simply created. She did not ask to be imprinted on, and she did not choose me. I doubt that there is anyone that would have willingly done so. I am…damaged, Rico. And whatever it is that I am anymore, it is my Alpha's. Even a half-vampire child deserves better than a broken kadidu who had already given his loyalty away. This was not fair to her."

Rico chuckled, pulling the brim of his hat up enough to smirk at Jack with darkening eyes. The vampire was hungry, would hunt today, although not until he'd had his fill of ribbing Jack. "Jackie, did you ever stop to think that maybe you ain't as damaged as you believe? Sure, you still go off in la la land every once in a while, but your Alpha's been fixing that and don't think I haven't noticed. Maybe your biggest problem is that your ass is just lonely. Maybe a mate is just what you need. I'd offer myself, but you're a little too hot for this vampire to handle." He waggled his eyebrows at Jack and received a hay bale in the face.

"My _mate_, my only one, died five hundred years ago," Jack muttered, shaking his head. "That child is not my mate, not yet anyways. She may never be, depending on her decisions later, and my own."

"But she is your imprint," Rico insisted.

There was no doubting that, so Jack finally nodded. "Yes, old friend. She is my imprint, and that fact cannot be taken back." Even now he was reminded of it, the muttering of the ancestors in his head pushed down by her wave of nervousness. Why was she nervous? Why did she feel it so _deeply_?

"Meaning what exactly?" the vampire asked, spitting on the ground. "Explain it to me."

Jack closed his eyes, grimacing. "Meaning that my life is now tied to hers, and hers to mine. Meaning that of all that are Pack, she is my complement, and I hers. She is made for me, and that fact alone…" He drifted off, growing angry again.

"Makes you so mad you could spit?" Rico raised an eyebrow and lit another cigarette, flicking his last one. He only smoked this much when he was hungry, not that it did anything to calm his hunger.

Jack snarled and kicked a hay bale, the one with the broken strings, thinking that the vampire knew him far too well. The wolf that he had once been would have been deeply disturbed by that fact alone. "I have made my decisions, Rico, and they have brought me to the place where I am," Jack said hotly. "They were my choices, and I have reaped the consequences. If I am lonely, or damaged, it is of my own making. But she is a _child_, one you yourself have said is only three and a half years old, and if she is my complement..."

"Then Mommy and Daddy Cullen royally fucked up somewhere?" Rico supplied cheerfully, winking at him. Jack said nothing, but he did growl, and Rico laughed. "Jackie, my old friend, you're not making any sense. You don't want an imprint, but you're angry over her already."

"She is my imprint."

"Which you don't want," Rico reminded him, and this time Jack growled louder.

"I never said that I don't _want_ her," Jack stated. "I said that I had not believed I could imprint, and I do not believe it the best for her."

Rico smirked and flicked a piece of hay at him. "So you _did_ want an imprint, just not that one. I always did have you pegged for the romantic type, old wolf, but not one that hurt children's feelings."

"If you are trying to make my head hurt, you have succeeded, Cold One," Jack rumbled in a low dangerous voice. "But if you seek to push me for your own amusement, be wary. I am not in the mood."

"Easy with that Cold One stuff," Rico chuckled and hopped down from the haystack, landing lightly on his feet and offering Jack a cigarette, which Jack declined. "I'm a little chilly maybe, but there's no need for insults."

Jack narrowed his eyes, saying simply, "It is who you are."

Rico pretended to look wounded. "Yeah, but you don't have to go rubbing it in all over the place," he sighed dramatically, to which Jack simply stared at him. The vampire laughed and held up his hands in a placating fashion. "Okay, fine, fine, no more teasing. But listen, all I'm saying is that I've been with you a long time and I _know_ you. You keep your world small and controlled so that it's less scary for you, and that's fine with me. A man needs to do what's best for him, but don't think I don't know we've just been hiding out here all these years."

Jack glanced at the vampire as Rico walked over and clapped him on the shoulder. "As much as I miss your furry butt around here all the time, I think you're doing something now that you should have done a long time ago. Personal feeling about them aside, I was proud as hell of you for taking a risk and throwing in with the La Push Pack. There's a lot of shit you don't have to deal with hiding over here with me, but there's a lot of shit you're missing out on when you do. It's hard to live life hanging out with a dead man, Jackie boy, and it's hard to pretend you're dead when someone else is in your head. At least unlike the others, little lady Cullen is only _half_ dead. That's at least a step up from your norm, isn't it?"

Jack's dead Alpha found that very amusing, the first thought he had had since telling Jack to turn to Jake for guidance. Jack had been wondering if his oldest friend had abandoned him for good. Jack shook the fuzziness out of his mind and looked at Rico. The vampire gave him a smirk. "What? You think I can't tell?"

The ancient wolf ducked his head, staring at the ground unhappily. "I can feel her," Jack finally said, his voice soft. "She is confused so much of the time. I fear what she one day may feel from me. I fear what damage that I will do to her simply in her being tied to me."

"So she matters," Rico pressed, and Jack exhaled.

The ancient wolf closed his eyes. "She is my imprint," he murmured, as if that was that.

Rico rolled his now pitch black eyes, and spat again. "Yeah, and Black is your Alpha, and Clearwater is your Beta, and your Pack is your Pack. You hide behind that label shit all the time, Jack," the vampire derisively. Jack blinked at the annoyance in the vampire's voice, and Rico tossed his cigarette, knowing Jack would pick it up later.

"I have angered you," Jack murmured, and Rico shrugged.

"Naw, I'm just hungry. Listen, I've met your imprint, although Coven Cullen guard her like she's their own private goldmine, and I gotta tell you, that little girl isn't messed up. She's just…different. She ain't never had a chance to be normal, but if she doesn't matter to you, if you're just going over there because it's expected of you, then don't go. It won't be the first time you threw tradition in everyone's faces, old friend. My guess it wouldn't be the last. But don't disappoint her. If she doesn't matter, just don't go. It'll be easier on you both this way."

With that, the vampire wandered away, leaving half the hay stacked and the other half still on the flatbed trailer, still needing unloaded. Jack didn't mind, he understood that his friend had stayed as long as the vampire could. He understood vampire hunger better than any other wolf out there, understood that there was only so long they could wait. And right now, he understood that his imprint suffered from that same thirst, nearly driving him to distraction with her need for it. Unlike the adult Cold One that Jack lived with, her need she tried to fight. She suffered with herself, fought herself every day.

That was something that Jack understood far more than anything else. That was why he was so damn angry over her already, over the thirst that she was feeling. The Cold Ones that were her parents should have known better, this was not the life even half a human should lead.

"She matters," Jack finally whispered to himself, going back to work with the knowledge that it was true. "She matters."

Ignoring the aching in his chest, something had made her sad, and ignoring the desire to find a way to go fix that, Jack continued stacking hay. He had a lot to get done today, and afterwards there was something he had to go find. After all, one could not go visit their imprint empty handed, and for better or for worse, tomorrow the ancient wolf had somewhere to be.

* * *

Samantha Carter was pretty sure that she was inheriting super strength from her Pack association, because this was the fourth time this year she had bent her locker opening it too hard. Samantha didn't mind having super strength, but she did mind when it disappeared in trying to bend the locker back enough to latch correctly. Cursing didn't help, so she had moved on to the threatening part of the broken locker experience.

"Die, you stupid locker," Samantha growled, banging her hand on it in annoyance, "Die!"

"Isn't that Chancy's line?" a male voice asked from behind her shoulder, and Samantha sighed, dropping her head against the metal door.

"Lockers are evil, Brady," Samantha decided, straightening up and trying to bend the latch again as the younger wolf smirked down at her. "Stop looking at me like that, they are!"

Brady rolled his eyes, and then pointed to a spot on the latch. "You're making it worse, Sims, bend it back over here."

"But I bent it _here_ in the first place," she stated, and Brady gave her a look. Samantha held up her hands in a placating fashion. "Fine fine, I'll bend it back over there and it'll get all the more messed up and-oh hey. Look, it's all latchy now."

"Latchy isn't a word," Brady told her, resting his elbow on the top of her head as he watched Jake and Seth walk past, a little carrot colored head poking out between them with attached arms waving at Samantha and Brady. "You're making me late for lunch," he said idly.

"Then go," she told him, opening and closing her locker with satisfaction. "You guys don't have to do Sims duty at school anyways. Go, be satiated."

"I'm not tired," he said, looking confused for a second. "Just really hungry."

Samantha gave Brady a grin but didn't say anything, closing her locker for the last time. "Then we shall go be satiated together," she decided heading off down the hall, Brady at her heels. He smirked down at her from his height.

"You're in a good mood," he decided, and then he gave her a knowing look. "You're sleeping a lot better, aren't you? Since you moved in with him?"

"Oh my, yes. Even with Embry on night patrols, it's so…not like my Dad's. There's something magnificent about being drunk man free every night for a week," Samantha decided contentedly. "Although I do miss random strangers trying to grope me when they're a six pack in," she added teasingly. "Do you think Embry will let me bring some home just for old time's sake?"

Brady snorted at that, but gave her an amused look. A janitor was coming down the hall, pushing a large trashcan, and Samantha shifted sideways to get out of her way, accidentally bumping into Brady. He put his hand on Samantha's waist to steady her, although she didn't miss the death glare he leveled at the janitor over her head, a small middle aged woman half his height who cringed back from them. Samantha didn't do well with being surrounded by even her own Pack, didn't like being touched by any of them without being ready for it, but with Brady she was okay. She looked up at the tall young man beside her and gave him a smirk.

"Scaring little old ladies, are we now?" she asked teasingly, and Brady grunted at her in reply, dropping his hand.

"She got in your way," he muttered back, and Samantha shook her head.

"I think it was more the other way around, Brady," she chuckled, patting his arm. "Hey, where's Collin today?"

"He's playing hooky with Cassie and running a patrol for Jack," Brady told her, "Jack's been off his game this week, no wonder why. If I imprinted on a leech, even Nessie, my ass would still be running away screaming."

Samantha snorted at that as Brady grabbed the lunchroom door and held it so that Samantha could walk through first, nodding at her thanks. Cursing aside, Brady had very good manners when around females, although Samantha knew for a fact he hadn't picked them up from his father. If someone needed role models, Jared Qahla and Kim Connweller beat out Bradley Jennings and his estranged wife any day of the week. Jared and Kim's influence were in a hundred different things Brady did every day, and the more Samantha got to know her Packmates, the more she saw it. The closer she became to Brady, and saw his affection and respect for Jared and Kim, the more she respected them and the part they played in his life.

Leah had told her that even though Brady was technically watching out for Kim right now, it was much the other way around. Apparently Kim Connweller had no problem pulling a shotgun on Bradley Jennings when he came around looking to mess with Brady. Samantha found that amusing as hell, considering Brady was a wolf and always ended up taking the gun away from Kim, but it was nice to know that the couple unequivocally had Brady's back.

Embry had additionally told Samantha that this current Brady was like the Brady that had initially phased, angry and defensive, harder to control. Years of patience and tough love from Jared and Kim had helped Brady pull out of the shell his home life had forced him into, but he had sunk back into it after Calgary. But honestly, it was hard for Samantha to tell the difference with Brady. She was only an imprint and didn't have the luxury of being in his head, and he tended to snap out of the worst of his moods when around her. Of course he was playing guard dog a lot of the time, but Samantha didn't mind the way she would have with everyone else, including Embry. She and Brady had gone through hell together. It made her more inclined to let him get away with whatever he wanted to around her, and he was starting to take advantage of it, a fact that annoyed Collin to no end.

They were late for the lunch line and as they stood at the back, Samantha gave a little wave to Chancy, who was farther forward in the line and getting bothered mercilessly by Seth and Jake. Samantha grinned, but then her grin faded and she bumped Brady's ribs with her elbow. "Hey, look at that."

Callie Jennings, Brady's cousin, had just smoothly inserted herself in between Seth and Chancy, saying something dismissively that made Seth narrow his eyes in irritation and Chancy go red in embarrassment.

"Look at what?" Brady rumbled, regretfully pulling his gaze from the questionable looking lunch food and following her eyes. Then he smirked. "Five bucks says Seth shoots her down."

"Of course he shoots her down," Samantha growled. "Five bucks that Chancy punches her in the face and breaks her pretty nose. Of course, maybe I could do it and save myself the five bucks."

Brady barked out a laugh at that and then patted her on the head. "Easy killer," the young wolf chuckled as they scooted forward in line. "Oh hey! Salisbury steak. That's cool."

"That's gross," Samantha shuddered, peering at it. "However…" she added in a sing song voice, "Look what I haaaave." She dangled a five dollar bill in front of Brady's face. "Goodbye peanut butter and apples. Hello yucky looking Salisbury steak. No more state provided lunches for me."

"I had to do that for middle school," Brady told her, looking longingly at the lunch lady. "It sucked. Is Embry finally paying you for you busting your ass over there to help him?"

"When I let him," Samantha smirked, waiting as the freshman in front of her, a large rawboned kid who held himself awkwardly, shuffled ahead more slowly than the rest of the line and earned an impatient glare from Brady. "Technically I still qualify to state lunch it, what I keep for the classes I teach isn't a lot, but nearly a year of peanut butter sandwiches and apples has been rough. It's my money and I'm splurging."

"On Salisbury steak?" Brady chuckled and Samantha sighed dramatically.

"Brady, Brady, Brady, you're missing the _entire_ point," she decided, "I am woman, see me splurge here." Then Samantha grinned as Seth tugged Chancy under his arm and said something in return to Callie that made Callie's face go red. "What did Seth just say?" she asked, drawing Brady's attention away from the lunch line a second time.

"Hmm? Oh, he told her that she looked better when she wasn't talking," Brady said absently. "_Dude_, pick up the pace," he added in a grunt, the freshman in front of her slowing down even more.

Samantha shot Brady a look, shaking her head and whispering as softly as she could, "Back off, Brady, I think that's the fastest he can go."

"Whatever," Brady grumbled and Samantha rolled her eyes as she grabbed three trays, one for her and handing two to Brady.

"You really are a grouch," she smiled, not at all bothered by it. "Okay, I'm a lunch line virgin here, and I need some gentle handling. What's better with Salisbury steak? Disturbingly rounded scoops of mashed potatoes or the slightly limp crinkle fries? I'm passing on the green thingies, I'm not eating my vegetables when I don't know what they are."

Brady said nothing, and Samantha looked back over her shoulder, seeing that he was blushing slightly. It took her a moment to figure out and then she laughed. "What? Did the word 'virgin' throw you, or was it the 'gentle handling'?"

"Shut up, Sims," Brady muttered, going redder at the second part of her sentence. "And get the fries."

Samantha's grin widened. "It was the gentle handling, wasn't it? Come on Brady, _every_ girl needs it sometimes, even virgins," she snickered, and Brady blushed bright red when she looked at the lunch lady and smiled cheerfully. "Hello," Samantha declared loudly. "Fries please, but not too many. I'm a lunch line virgin and can only handle so much at once."

The lunch lady blinked but Samantha just gave her another smile and moved on. Just getting out of the lunch line, Jake and Seth both gave Samantha a smirk, although Jake seemed distracted by Callie, who they hadn't managed to run off yet. They passed the table where Nikki Connweller was eating lunch with her freshman friends, and Seth made sure to ruffle her hair as he passed by, just to annoy her. The table erupted in giggles, which stopped immediately as Callie hit them with a hard look. Chancy seemed beyond uncomfortable as the guys headed outside, where they had all taken up eating at Samantha's table, and Chancy dropped back, rolling her eyes at Samantha dramatically and making faces at Callie's back before following the three. Samantha laughed and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, just for old time's sake.

The freshman in front of her was fumbling with his money as he tried to pay, and Samantha watched, feeling a little bad. Brady however, had already eaten half of one of his plates of fries and just looked annoyed. "So sloooow," Brady grumbled under his breath and Samantha narrowed her eyes at him, and then quite deliberately tapped her ear piercing twice. Brady snorted, and then seemed to think about it. Then he smirked and tapped his own canine pointedly, before playfully snapping his teeth at her.

It was the kind of thing that still would have freaked her out if it had been one of the others, and being threatened was the kind of thing that sent Brady into a rage these days. But it was him and it was her, so Samantha and Brady just shared a grin and left it at that. The freshman scooted his tray away from the lunch lady at the register and tried to find a place to set his milk carton and his silverware, his own plate nearly as full of food as Brady's. Distracted by him, Samantha moved too close to her tray as she handed the lunch lady her five dollar bill, knocking her apple off her tray with her elbow.

"Crap," she muttered as Brady noticed and went to grab it for her, but the freshman had done the same, only much more clumsily. Samantha jerked back in surprise when he knocked his tray off the counter and Salisbury steak hit the floor right in front of her feet. Her shoes and jeans would have been gravy drenched and mashed potatoes covered if Brady hadn't snagged her backwards fast enough to avoid the tray, growling instinctively at the loud clatter of hard plastic hitting the ground.

Samantha Carter was used to getting looked at in this school, but for some reason it bothered her deeply that the whole lunchroom was suddenly silent and staring at this poor kid.

The freshman paled from Brady's snarl and decided to forgo grabbing his tray off the ground, reaching instead for Samantha's apple and accidentally knocking it so that it started rolling towards the closest table. The tall freshman went after the apple, dropping to his knees next to the table and trying to reach under it, Samantha scurrying after him.

"It's okay," she told him, flushing a little herself when he half crawled under the table, still hell bent on getting her apple. The students around them were starting to snicker at him, and she glared at them before turning back. "Really, it's _okay_."

"I'll get it," the freshman mumbled as the apple rolled out of his fingertips and further beneath the long lunch tables, students getting up and laughing as he tried to move around the side and got on the floor in between their seats.

Samantha followed, bending down and repeating, "Just let it go, it's just an apple. It's okay."

"Dude, look at Owen. What an _idiot_," someone snickered loud enough that half the lunch table heard, and the freshman, Owen, went crimson. However he kept trying to get the apple, and as the lunch monitor started to realize that something was going on and that they better intervene, suddenly Samantha was pissed.

She couldn't remember the last time that she had been this angry, so much so that a tremor rolled down her spine and she stood up and spun on the lunchroom, opening her mouth to let every single one of these assholes have it. But before she could, a deep sense of calm rolled through her, a calm not of her own making and it pushed her anger down against her will. Samantha didn't like that, not one bit, but she had already agreed to one order from the La Push Alpha, and in doing so had left herself more susceptible to his influence through the imprint bond. So she fought it, fought it hard enough that she was shaking, at least until Brady stepped up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. The lunchroom stopped laughing, falling into a dead silence instead. Thinking Brady must have one hell of a growl on his face, she turned to look at him and saw that Jacob Black was standing beside the table, an apple in his hand and a look on his face that made even her flinch back.

"This yours?" he asked her quietly as Owen clumsily got to his feet, and Samantha nodded, sucking in a deep breath and trying not to be caught under the spell of Alpha the way the rest of the room way.

"I…I dropped it," she said, swallowing twice and wishing that Jake had half a clue the impression he could make on people. "And it rolled. He…Owen was helping me get it back."

Jake suddenly changed his body stance, it was subtle, but for some reason Samantha felt like she could breathe again. Behind her she could hear Brady's muscles relax, even if his hand on her shoulder slipped away. It occurred to Samantha that Jake had thought they were laughing at _her_, and not for the first time the force of his presence frightened her. For herself and for everyone else. But the Alpha relaxed and looked at the freshman and then flashed the kid a white toothed smile.

"Good man," Jake decided, tossing the apple to Owen, who under Jake's approval managed to catch it. "Give the lady her apple so that the rest of these assholes can go back to eating." Jake turned his eyes to the school, his tribe even if they were still kids, and the future chief gave them all a disapproving look. "Apparently it's not enough to have racism and prejudice suppressing the Quileute. We have to put _each other_ down as well. That shit really pisses me off."

There were moments in their lives where the Quileute people would stop and they would listen and they would hear the truths spoken by those that would lead them. This was one of those times.

The Alpha nodded at Brady and then headed back outside, having said his piece and sent many of their heads ducking in shame. Samantha trembled, even as the freshman handed her back her apple and gave her an apologetic look. "Thanks," she whispered, disturbed deeply by her own reaction to Jacob Black, her need to gain his approval for herself. She wasn't normally like this.

Brady and Samantha both helped the freshman with his overturned tray, up until the janitor that Brady had glared at came in to help clean up. Then Samantha stuck her apple in her hoodie pocket, it too bruised and too dirty to eat anymore, but she sure as hell wasn't throwing it away after that poor kid tried to chase it down like that for her. Outside, Seth and Jake had already finished eating and were playing basketball, while Callie perched in Samantha's normal spot and smirked at Chancy. It was obvious Chancy was trying to disappear into the table beneath.

There were nice people in the world and there were mean ones, and Chancy was a nice one, at least as far as Samantha knew. And as far as Samantha knew, Callie was a mean one, and had never helped _anyone_ pick up an apple.

Running Callie off from the table wasn't nearly as hard as it seemed to be for everyone else, but then again Samantha wasn't as nice as they were. Samantha simply looked at her, Callie glared back, and then the younger girl snorted and walked away. Easy enough.

Chancy breathed a sigh of relief, and Samantha saw that her friend had been in near tears out of sheer discomfort. To be honest, Samantha had no clue why Seth would have left Callie alone with Chancy, but Seth was a little blind when it came to non-imprinted women that weren't as good at standing up for themselves. As much as Seth liked to play superhero, he was too used to Sue and Leah and Sims, who had no problem kicking the teeth in of anyone that messed with them.

"She has bugged the hell out of me since I was Claire's age," Brady mentioned around a mouthful of crinkle fries, giving Sims an appreciative look before plopping down to the crunchy frozen grass and falling into his food as if he was starving.

"Poor guy," Samantha chuckled, reaching over and patting his shoulder.

Seth whooped and did a particularly nice slam dunk that Chancy missed as she was happily digging out a lollipop for both herself and Samantha. The Beta pouted, and Jake punched him in the gut hard enough that when Chancy looked over, Seth was keeled over in pain and not nearly as cool as he liked to be. Seth gave Chancy a pitiful look in hopes of attention, and Chancy rolled her eyes and laughed at him instead, once again things back to normal. As Samantha listened to her friend talk about Callie Jennings' annoying habit of circling Jake and Seth and their equally annoying refusal to run her off, the carrot haired girl making shark theme song noises for dramatic effect, Samantha ate her Salisbury steak.

Deep inside her something crawled, but as normal, Samantha shoved it down and pretended that everything was just fine. It was easier that way.

* * *

Renesmee sat in her best dress in her family's sitting room, making sure not to fidget in the least bit. She had picked this dress out a week ago. She hoped that her wolf liked it.

Her family had not taken well to "this whole imprinting thing" as they had referred to it, but they seemed at least willing to give it a chance. It had helped that her wolf had not once come within smelling distance of the coven since he had passed Renesmee back to her father the last time she had seen him. She had remembered the talk about how an imprinted wolf was constantly drawn to the person they had imprinted on, and she definitely felt a soft steady tug on the back of her senses, a tug that reminded her that there was something worth paying attention to towards the south, towards Hoquiam. But if her wolf felt the same, he was able to resist the urge to come see her.

To be honest, the fact that he was able to stay away slightly disappointed her.

Sometimes Renesmee woke up in the middle of the night and pretended that her wolf had snuck in just to see her and that they stayed up until dawn reading about his culture and talking about all the fun that they would have together, for the rest of forever. He never teased her about crying the other night, and she felt better for it. She did tell him that he wasn't allowed to bite Jacob anymore, that had rather frightened her even though Seth had pulled her away enough that she hadn't seen it, and he had apologized profusely.

She forgave him because he was her wolf and of course that was what imprints did.

In her imaginings, her wolf would always sneak away before dawn because it was more exciting that way, although her father had caught her thinking about how fun that would be, and it had ended up in a conversation that had left Renesmee convinced that grown men had no business sneaking into her bedroom at night and she was glad that her wolf was not the type to do such things. The conversation had made her feel uncomfortable, but her mother had explained to her that every child needed to learn about strangers and what was okay and what wasn't, and that sometimes the most uncomfortable conversations were the ones that needed to be held.

Renesmee had found a more social acceptable make believe to make everyone happier, and she had gone back to imagining that her wolf would come daily to play with her, because she was more fun than anyone else he knew, more than anyone he had _ever_ known. Sometimes he brought Mister Rico to play as well, because her wolf was okay with vampires, and he never accidentally called her family leeches in front of her. He was a much more progressive type of wolf, tolerant and accepting where even her Alpha, because Renesmee had an Alpha now, was not. And they had a secret that they never told anyone, and that secret was that her wolf was actually even stronger than the Alpha was, but he loved Jacob far too much to ever tell him.

For some reason, her father was spending a lot of time in the next room over groaning these days.

It was Saturday, and since her wolf hadn't messed up and made her family angry, they were letting him come and see her today. Even though he wasn't supposed to show up until noon, Renesmee hadn't been able to sleep the night before from her excitement. To kill time that morning she had learned a new poem, this one of Pacific Northwest Native American origin, because she refused to be culturally ignorant when she was now a Quileute Pack imprint.

She was extremely proud of her imprint status, and was determined to be the best imprint that she could possibly be. Renesmee had already made a plate of little ham sandwiches cut into triangles, arranged neatly with their crusts cut off and toothpicks in them for ease of eating. Jacob loved ham sandwiches, and no one had a phone number for her to call her wolf and ask him what he preferred. She had asked her grandmother to save some turkey just in case her wolf didn't like ham.

Jacob, in the several times he had dropped by to check on her, smiled at her every time she shared with him the most recent information she had researched about Quileute customs or beliefs. He had told her not to stress over the small stuff, they'd teach her all she needed to know in time, but he hadn't been able to teach her any of these things yet. Jacob was allowed to come by and see her, as per his right as her Alpha, but he was far from welcome as far at the coven as the majority of her family was concerned. It made her sad, but her grandfather had told her not to worry about that either. Carlisle was giving both Edward and Jacob time to cool off before he was planning on bringing them back together and talking some sense into both of them.

So Renesmee had waited all morning and now it was ten minutes until noon, and she knew this because she had been watching the clock for the last fifteen minutes. When the clock dipped dangerously close to noon, with no scent of wolf on the air, Renesmee turned worried eyes to her family. Aunt Rosalie had refused to be a part of this and had dragged Uncle Emmett to Seattle with her, but her Aunt Alice was there, with Uncle Jasper standing with his arms crossed in an intimidating stance behind the couch Alice was on. Her mother and father had gone outside to wait for Renesmee's wolf by themselves, and Renesmee's grandmother was in the kitchen, fixing her lunch.

"Aunt Alice?" Renesmee asked worriedly from her seat at the little tea table, and her Aunt leaned forward, understanding her concern.

"Nessie, he's _coming_," her Aunt Alice assured her again, the pixie like vampire nodding encouragingly. "I told you that I can't see you this afternoon, but I can see you tonight. The only time that happens is when the wolves come by."

Renesmee nodded, smiled at her aunt, and then adamantly _refused_ to fidget. If her little foot was turned inwards and nervously rubbing the instep of her other one, that wasn't fidgeting. That action fell into the category of suitable-habits-of-imprints-about-to-see-their-wolves-for-the-third-time-ever. Although she had to admit that she was curious as to why Jasper wasn't soothing her the way he usually did when he was around. He sure was watching her closely, as if paying extra close attention to how Renesmee was feeling.

Alice sighed as Carlisle stepped into the room. "How is everyone doing?" the coven leader asked in his gentle but authoritative voice and Alice rolled her eyes.

"Considering that we're waiting here with hors d'oeuvres for a wolf that doesn't even have a last name," Alice piped up with only the smallest amount of sarcasm in her voice, "I think we're doing fine."

"He doesn't have a last name?" Renesmee asked in confusion, and her grandfather gave her a smile, walking over to stand behind her chair. Carlisle put his hands on her shoulders reassuringly.

"Surnames were a European distinction, Renesmee," Carlisle told her as her grandmother came in with a tray, gracefully setting it down on table in front of her. "It's not abnormal. His name most likely isn't even Jack. You'll have to ask him what his real name is, but first eat your lunch. You look a little pale." She was a little pale because she was a lot thirsty, the need for blood had been worse this week than normal. Thankfully lunch was half of a turkey sandwich and a cup of tomato soup that was richer and darker than most tomato soups.

"Thank you, Grandma," Renesmee smiled at her grandmother thankfully for the older vampire's discretion. The little girl had worried about Jack seeing her consume blood, even though in her imaginings, her wolf had never cared. The tomato soup hid it perfectly. Esme gave her a sweet smile and a kiss on the top of her head before settling down next to Alice of the couch.

They continued to wait, and Renesmee finally wiggled in her chair. It was 12:05 pm and he wasn't there yet.

Feeling her heart sink, and knowing for a fact that sometimes Alice's visions could be wrong, Renesmee lifted her soup spoon to her lips. Apparently the wind was blowing the wrong way because she had never smelled her parents or Jacob's wolf, Jack, as they approached the house. She had never heard him either, didn't realize that her parents had met Jack further away to speak with him privately first, and while she had heard her parents and her mother especially walking back towards the house, the wolf at their heels was silent for even ones like them. The door opened and on catching the distinctly earthen scent of the wolf that had imprinted on her, Renesmee looked up from her food, startled.

Her eyes locked with his, and he gave her a small shy smile, making the world become confusing. So confusing in fact that for the first time in her entire life, the little girl spilled something. Her best dress was a pale cream color with a pretty brown lace ribbon that her grandmother said matched her eyes. But even the prettiest dress looked horrible with a cupful of bloody tomato soup dumped down the front.

Renesmee's family were completely shocked, although not upset in the least. It was just that in three and a half years, she had never come anywhere _close_ to being clumsy. In truth Carlisle might have been able to catch the cup of soup in time, but even the coven leader had been utterly surprised at the blunder. Renesmee was a very well behaved little girl, charming even if she had been more precocious as an infant, but she had never failed to make a good impression on anyone that she met. But it seemed like fate was determined to make her wolf hate her, and she hadn't even gotten the chance to know him yet.

The little girl stared at the wolf, the one between her father and her mother, and then her eyes welled with tears. Smelling the blood and knowing she had ruined her best dress, Renesmee whispered an apology to everyone and then she fled upstairs.

"Renesmee," Bella murmured sympathetically, following her immediately, and Alice gave the wolf a hard glare as the older vampire followed at Bella's heels.

"Do you see what you did?" Alice snapped at Jack, her voice carrying up to the little girl trying and failing to get her bloody ribbon off upstairs. "Is it so very difficult to make a _little_ noise so you don't startle her? Do you have any idea how _hard_ it is to get blood out of lace? Jasper, _eat_ him," she added imperiously as she headed upstairs.

Jasper smirked in response to the demand. "Carlisle, do you think Jacob would mind?" Jasper wondered out loud, and Edward growled a little, although Renesmee wasn't sure at whom.

"Well, this is already going well," Renesmee could hear her grandfather sigh downstairs, but his voice was covered by Alice's footsteps as the tiny vampire came up the stairs.

Renesmee's mother had already helped her out of her dress, and the little girl was staring at her closet in distress. There were a lot of choices, and they all fit, but they weren't her _best_ dress and it had seemed so important to wear her best dress for her wolf. "Here, baby, wear this," Bella said in her chiming voice, handing Renesmee a shirt, and Alice immediately snatched it out of Bella's hands.

"No, no, no," Alice tisked, rummaging through the racks as Renesmee sniffed and tried to wipe her eyes before they became too red and puffy. "That won't work. This one won't work either, _this_ one we never should have let you buy in the first place, Bella…"

Renesmee's mother growled a little at that. "Alice, it doesn't _matter_. He's in jean and a t-shirt. You're making too big of a production about this."

"Just because the new mutt on the block has no taste," Alice sniffed, staring at and discarding another selection, "Doesn't mean that Nessie isn't well bred and well groomed. Maybe it'll do him some good to see that not everyone lives in the dirt like the La Push Pack. Of course if he starts staring at her like a weirdo, _I'm_ eating him."

"Jacob has a home, Aunt Alice," Renesmee defended her Alpha immediately, "And maybe it would be better if I wore jeans and a t-shirt as well? So Mister Jack feels more comfortable?" she asked, looking at Bella for help. Bella sighed when Alice hit her with a second look.

"See, Bella?" Alice chirped. "Rosalie was right, they've already brainwashed her. And Jacob lived in a shoebox. It barely counts as not being in the dirt."

"Stop teasing her, Alice," Bella said firmly, giving Renesmee a reassuring hug. "And be nice, I used to like that shoe box."

Alice sighed, and slumped her tiny shoulders. "I know, I know, I shouldn't take it out on Jacob. I just worry about this whole thing, and to be honest, that wolf down there freaks me out a little. Nessie, be careful around him, he's more than twice as old as Carlisle is, and that means he's strong, okay?"

"Jacob says that he would never hurt me," Renesmee reassured her aunt, wiping her eyes again.

"Yeah, it's the rest of us I'm worried about," Alice muttered under her breath, but then clamped her mouth shut as Bella glared at her. "Sorry, sorry, okay we need another dress. Dress dress dress…"

There was a knock on the door, and it swung open to reveal Esme with another half of a sandwich and a small child sized thermos filled with the rest of the bloody soup. She gave Renesmee a kind smile as the little girl sat on her bed in her thankfully unstained slip, waiting for the adults in her life to fix the mess she had made of things. Esme sat down next to her and gave her a warm hug, even though her arms were cool and hard as granite.

"It's okay, Nessie," Esme promised her, handing the newest imprint the thermos. "Accidents happen, and no one's mad. Go ahead and drink this while they choose you something new."

"I never even said hello," Renesmee said in a small voice, and Esme ran a soothing hand over her curls when she added, "Do you think that I offended him? That he'll think less of me?"

Esme didn't immediately reassure Renesmee, instead she thought about the question before answering. "I think," she said calmly, gesturing for the little girl to drink. "I think that man downstairs is as new at this as you are. If he spilled something on himself, would _you_ think less of _him_?"

Renesmee shook her head no, she'd been taught that gently teasing the people you loved was okay, but making fun of them for their faults was unkind. "No, Grandma."

"Well, _I_ think that it takes a very brave man to come into our home alone, knowing that he's an outsider," Esme said quietly, and Renesmee decided that her grandmother was talking to more than just her. "And I think that despite how much none of us understand what this means in the long term, that very brave man did exactly as we asked and waited until today to come see you. To be honest, Carlisle and I expected him back within the day."

"He's not perfect, he _was_ five minutes late today," Alice reminded Esme, even as the tiny vampire pulled out a dress that met her approval. It was nearly identical to what Renesmee had been wearing earlier, and in it she could almost pretend she hadn't spilled anything on herself at all.

"He was ten minutes early, actually," Bella admitted. "Edward wanted to speak with him again, for all the good it did. He barely answered us, and only in one word sentences. He's polite about it, but I think he just wants to see Renesmee and that's it."

Esme winked at the little girl, who was chugging her blood as fast as she could. "See? I also think that he's still downstairs, and if it's not for us, it must be for you. He knows you're half-vampire, Nessie, so I believe that a little spilled soup won't be enough to matter."

That made Renesmee feel a lot better, and she finished her lunch while Alice and Bella argued about the need to re-curl Renesmee's hair. Bella won that one and Renesmee brushed her teeth and re-brushed her bronze curls before her mother helped her into her second dress, Alice fussing over the bow, a green one this time. Bella seemed to be dragging her heels and Alice could mess with a ribbon for days if allowed to, and more than once Renesmee had to force herself to not shift restlessly. Finally Esme stood up and gathered her tray.

"Alright," Esme said with a hint of steel in her musical voice. "Both of you stop stalling. The coven has made a decision to allow this until we are given a valid reason not to, and we've been up here for over half an hour. We are all Cullens, and I won't allow rudeness in our home."

Alice sighed dramatically and Bella looked possessively at Renesmee before sighing as well. "Yes, Esme," they both said at the same time, Alice winking at Bella as they did. Renesmee giggled at their attempts at contrite expressions, both equally unbelievable. Esme laughed and took Renesmee's hand, giving her someone to hold onto as she walked back down the stairs, feeling painfully shy and embarrassed at having been clumsy in front of all of them. Renesmee prepared herself for that moment when she looked at her wolf, knowing now that it could distract her attention and already mentally readying herself for that fact. She refused to look silly in front of him a third time in so many meetings.

She shouldn't have bothered. Jack was sitting on their couch, his eyes closed and his face impassive.

"Sorry about that, Jack," Esme said politely, leading Renesmee into the room. "Nessie? Would you see if Jack would like something to drink or eat, please?"

Renesmee nodded and went over to where the wolf was sitting. "Mister Jack?" she said as politely as she could. "Would you like anything to drink or eat? I made you some sandwiches," she added shyly. "Jacob likes ham sandwiches the most…but you're not Jacob, and I shouldn't have assumed. I can make you a turkey sandwich if you'd like."

His eyes remained closed and his face showed no expression, but the tiniest edges of Jack's lips curled up, saying something in his native tongue that Renesmee didn't understand. Without opening his eyes, he leaned forward and took one of the sandwiches, swallowing it in one bite, albeit much more mannerly than Jacob had ever done. He smiled at her a little more, continuing to keep his eyes closed, and he murmured in Quileute a second time.

Renesmee nodded, a little thrown at his using a language she didn't know, and she glanced at her family for help.

Edward frowned. "Jack, please use English or French when addressing our daughter. Spanish will do as well, but please restrict yourself to a language that is spoken in this house."

And that was the last thing that Jack said for the next two and a half hours. He kept his eyes closed and he smiled at her multiple times, no matter where in the room she was sitting, and always in answer to whatever she said, but he never once spoke to her. Jack did happily consume the entire plate of sandwiches, and when Renesmee went and got him more, he ate every single one of those as well.

At first Edward had gotten angry, and had snarled at Jack that rudeness would not be tolerated in their home, but Jack had seemed completely unconcerned, his eyes closed, his face calm and showing absolutely nothing resembling irritation on it at all. To be honest, Jasper and Edward had almost thrown him out by his scarred nose, and the longer this went on, the angrier they grew. Carlisle and Esme countered that this meeting was an agreed upon thing, allowing Jack to see Renesmee at least three hours a week, and even though it frustrated them as well, they couldn't risk Jacob breaking the treaty over what could possibly be just a misunderstanding.

Renesmee fiddled with the edge of her dress as she watching her wolf, who was in his own way watching her. To be honest she was a little confused. He was acknowledging her, smiling his small shy smile every time she moved or said or did anything, but he wasn't looking _at_ her, and he certainly wasn't acknowledging everyone else in the room. It made her feel special, but it also made her feel like she was missing something.

Edward looked ready to skin Jack alive, not that Jack seemed concerned about it, the wolf ignoring absolutely everything the vampires said or did.

Bella grew frustrated and was young enough that her frustration made her hungry, and she was forced to leave with Esme to hunt. After about an hour and a half of this, Alice grew bored and wandered away to try and save Renesmee's dress, and finally at a gesture from Carlisle, Jasper sighed and followed his wife. Saving dresses was boring, but not as boring as watching a wolf fall asleep. Jasper told them that he would be in the next room if they needed him, leaving Carlisle and Edward conversing in low tones about why a treaty with the Quileute wolves was more necessary than ever, and that they _would_ sit here for another hour. Then they would send Jack on his way, and call Jacob about this.

Edward wanted to be the one to call Jacob, he had some very specific things he wanted to say to the Alpha about setting his daughter up for disappointment. However, Renesmee wasn't actually disappointed. True, she had expected…more than this, but the little girl was often quiet as the adults talked, so it wasn't abnormal to spend a couple hours silently in the room with everyone else. She just wasn't used to one of the adults not talking along _with_ her. Still…her instincts told her that Jack was paying more attention to things than he appeared to be, so on a whim, she waggled her fingers at him, silently saying hello even if it was a little late. Edward sighed and turned to Carlisle, lowering his voice to the point that Renesmee could barely hear them.

And for the first time in two hours, no vampire eyes were on the wolf, watching his every motion. As Renesmee looked on in surprise, Jack lazily opened one eye, his mouth curving in a peaceful smile, and he quite deliberately winked at her. Then he mouthed the word "Hello."

The little girl grinned.

Edward noticed her grin and quickly looked at Jack, which in being a vampire made it a quick look indeed. But all he saw was Jack sitting exactly how he had been with his eyes closed, and when Edward growled questioningly, Renesmee didn't know what to say. The door opened, pulling both Carlisle and Edward's attention as Esme walked in, albeit it at separate times. This time when in the split second that no one was watching, Jack opened his eyes, winked at Renesmee again and wrinkled his nose up into a silly face. She couldn't help her giggle, even though she knew it was outing him. Knowing for a fact that something was up, her father could hear her thoughts after all, Edward stared hard at Jack and called Jasper back into the room.

And so started the most fascinating game of peekaboo Renesmee had ever played. She had grown out of the game when still a week old, but this version was much more fun than the old one, requiring her wolf to time his eye opening just perfectly to avoid detection. The funniest part about it was that her father and her grandfather _knew_ that he was doing it, but they simply couldn't catch him at it. The more they watched him closely, the more Renesmee started thinking random thoughts to bring her father's attention on herself, and it only helped that Bella finally came back in, full and alert from her hunt, wanting to know why Renesmee was giggling so much even though Jack was still sitting silently on the couch.

Edward finally shared a bemused look with Carlisle and gave up.

"Fine, you win, wolf," Edward told Jack with a sigh. "Talk to her in whatever language you want to, but know that's not going to work in your favor in gaining our trust. Your three hours are up, Jack, not that you spent them well."

Jack rose from the couch and even blinded he moved confidently around the coffee table, padding over to where Renesmee was sitting in her chair across from the room from him. The ancient wolf pulled something out of his shirt pocket as he crouched down in front of her, ignoring the protective eyes of her family as he placed it in her hand, making careful sure that their skin never touched. Eyes still closed, he gave her a very kind smile, said something in what she believed was Quileute, and then stood up.

His back was fully to Renesmee when Jack finally opened his eyes.

Jack gave her family a long hard look before he turned his gaze on Alice. "When I am allowed to _look_ at her without risk of your _eating me_, Cold Ones, let me know," he said in perfect English, his voice rougher than she would have expected it from looking at him. Without knowing why, Renesmee suddenly understood that her family had offended him deeply, but he just ducked his head as he slipped away without another word.

Jasper growled at the retreating wolf, but Alice simply looked stunned, and then she turned and left the room without a word.

"Again, that went quite well," Carlisle murmured, although he actually looked a little amused. "If anything, he has a sense of humor."

"What did he give you, Nessie?" Bella asked curiously, moving to peer over the little girl's shoulder as she looked at the gift. It was a strange thing, a little chunk of rock tucked into a simple hand-carved box. All together it was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

"He gave me a rock," Renesmee said, a little confused, but then again, her wolf was confusing. Far from being embarrassed by her inability to understand him, the little girl found herself smiling.

In her imaginings, Jack had been just like everyone else she knew, just a version that seemed most suited to her. But in truth, her wolf was like no one she had ever met before. It was hard to know what he thought about anything, but he had managed to confuse everyone she knew, and they were all very smart. That meant she didn't have to feel bad about being confused, and she had liked the fact that he had eaten all of her sandwiches. Jack had even brought her a gift, which had never occurred to her that he might do. Her daddy had said to be wary of things that seemed too good to be true, but he had never said anything about being wary of things that were just good enough. In her mind, today had been quite fine.

Smiling even bigger, Renesmee went up to her room to find the most important place she could put her gift. After all, imprints did that sort of thing.

* * *

Jack was angry.

The ancient wolf was so angry that the Cullen coven was lucky that they were his imprint's family and allied to his Pack. Had they not been both, he would have been tempted to tear their smallest female from limb from limb, despite her mate standing guard. In truth the Cold Ones had deeply insulted him. There was a time where a wolf had a say as to what happened to his imprint, where it was an honor for a daughter of the tribe to be imprinted on, and a Tlokwali not questioned about wanting to spend a scant three hours with her.

Jack may be next to nothing now, but he was not the man they watched him so closely and feared that he could be.

The wolf had held to his own part of the bargain, and he had done so out of respect for her family, but instead of being treated in kind, he had been watched suspiciously by them all, had been told what he was allowed to speak of to his imprint before even coming into the house, put on guard like a vicious beast that they didn't trust not to break its chain. The ancient wolf had never heard of an imprint being denied daily access to their wolf, and it made him even angrier. This was not the world Jack had known. Every step deeper into it only proved that fact more.

Jack was angry, to the point that he felt it rolling through to his Alpha, and to his Beta, and far up north, it was even felt by his Third. But it was his fourth that found him on the borderline, deliberately standing on the inside of the line and staring at the heavens as if to dare the ancestors to mess with him again. He was not in the mood to apologize any more today.

Embry gave Jack one long look, and then laughed. "You know, that's the same expression Quil had on his face too, the first time he went to go see Claire. I take it things didn't go over very well at Crypt Cullen?"

"I could have eaten her first, quite easily, fourth," Jack decided, growling at the sky and Embry smirked, throwing an arm around Jack's shoulders and leading him into the reservation.

"Come on, man," Embry grinned, shaking his head. "I'll buy you a beer. You look like you need it."

Yes. Yes, Jack did. As the ancient wolf allowed himself to be taken deeper into the reservation, Jack's dead Alpha yawned sleepily and wagged his tail. Different or not, it was still good to be home.

After all, the dead Alpha's and his friend had been gone for a very long time.

* * *

Rico lifted his mouth off of the human girl's throat and sighed. "You know, he's going to notice," Rico told her, his eyes reddened deeply. "I'm going to have to leave for at least a week now because of this. Did you really _have_ to wear the _short_ skirt yesterday?"

The dead girl said nothing, but Rico always had preferred doing the talking in his relationships anyways. Licking his lips, the old vampire sighed, pulled his hat over his eyes, and leaned against the dead girl more comfortably.

There really was nothing like a good meal and a good nap.


	9. Chapter 7

A/N I'm pretty unhappy with this chapter, but after trying to fix it for two weeks, I just need to post it and move on. :( But on a brighter note, my beta LIP has a new fic called _Heat_ out. It's a TIC tie-in, canon to this series, so check it out! It's favorited on my homepage. Thanks as always to my reviewers from last chapter: _EssaTheTwerp21, EnglishVoice, dirtychicken, TheNotoriousLIP, cylobaby, laurazuleta18, t (dot) bairdy, 82c10akaLynn, MadToTheBone1, Aleena Kiwiana, The all mighty and powerfulM, hilja, moani-sama, Britt01, Roonani, Buffyk0604, lionandlamblover, KerryH, toalli, EaSofie, arctic-howl, WorldsAngel, hefors, chickadee74, LucyPenny, _and_ MargotTenser_. Love you guys! Oh, and _**Tìxwáli**_ means "I'm going home" and _**Xw pá**_ means "In a little while." Catch everyone laters!

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Seven

_Qa'al's feet sank into the deep soft moss, and as the mist rolled over the forest floor, he knew he was lost._

_It was said that a man could travel through the spirit world in his dreams, and there he could speak to his ancestors, to learn their truths. It was also said that the spirits, both man and creature and element, were reluctant to give back those travellers, and it was only the cloudiness of sleep that protected the man from the spirits, from being taken too deep in the spirit world and never allowed to return. Only a few were given safe passage in and out of the spirit realm outside of dreams, the shaman, and those few paid a cost with every journey. In his long life, Qa'al had journeyed into the spirit realm as many times as the years he had lived, and Qa'al knew with surety that one of these nights, he would not be allowed to travel home again. _

_Tonight was that night._

_Qa'al knew he should be frightened, but there was a sense of deep calm in the forest of the spirit world, a gentleness that spoke of the earth and the air and the water, all wrapping around him like a soft blanket. It was the frozen bitterness of winter in the living world, but here in the spirit world it was the cool freshness of spring, of life, of living. Strange that this place would only be inhabited by the dead. As the Third stepped deeper into the forest, the mist curled about his ankles, brushed his bared hips and his naked torso. He wore the war paint of his people, his face masked with the white and black that was Tlokwali, but there was no one to fight here. The mist had condensed on a fallen redwood tree, and Qa'al's heels did not disturb the bark, or his toes the droplets of water, even as he stepped up and over. _

_A whisper in the wind, playing over his features. The ancestors were pleased with this one, were pleased with what he had done, with who he had been. The spirits were less content, but the spirits had always been wiser than men, wise as the endless ages that they spanned. The spirits always expected more from those they offered aid to. A brindled wolf stalked silently through the forest to his left, but Qa'al did not need to look to know what was there. When he turned his face to the left, he was unsurprised to see not a wolf but himself slipping through the forest, the paint on his other self mirroring his own war colors perfectly. They were one, even as their fingers brushed the foliage, one, as their paws sank into the cool earth beneath them._

_The brindle wolves lifted their muzzles and scented the winds. There were others surrounding them on all sides, but the lone brave journeying through the forest could not see them._

_Human again, Qa'al watched the mist, heavy and full, begin to rise from the forest floor. It covered his ankles, his calves, his knees. It played along his fingertips, a lover's caress up his spine. Whispers, quiet and soothing. The spirit world was a peaceful place if one simply allowed themselves to sink into it. To become one with the spirits, to become lost in their words and their ways. _

_The path lay before the brindle wolf's feet, but the rest of the forest was lost to the mist, and each step grew heavier. It would be better to lie down and rest, to stop searching, but a whisper in the wind, a single note of subtle warning. There was something here that Qa'al should see, something that he should know, something that only the ancestors and the spirits could know. Something of the past. Something of the present. Something that would determine the future of his people._

_Shapes in the mist, slipping past human eyes, and Qa'al reached out his hand to touch what was right there before him...What he needed to know was right there in the mist, just inches away, if he could only just…_

_A little further, the brindle wolf stretched his muzzle out just a little further, the mist curling around his ears and eyes before washing over him completely, the spirits swallowing him whole._

_And for the briefest moment, Qa'al saw _everything_._

_Everything was too much for one man to see, and Qa'al was overcome. He would have been lost then, forever lost, but heavy white wings beat silently against his muzzle, snowy feathers cutting through the mist as they shed away and slowly drifted to the ground. An owl screeched, her voice a sharp cry in his ears as she sought to drive him back, back from the mist. Long fangs pierced deeply into his belly, sinking into his core, pulling him, no _dragging_ him away, even as the fangs sliced him to shreds. The soft whispers rose to a roar, and the brindle wolf screamed the scream of a man, a beast in agony, as the voices assaulted his eardrums. He was theirs now, and __**they would not let him leave**__._

_"You are still mine, brother, and I won't let you leave either," T'sikáti growled in his ear as Qa'al screamed and screamed, fighting against his Alpha's hold. "Qa'al! Come back to us, brother."_

_The woman who had spent that night in his arms, the one that had desperately tried to rouse him from his sleep when Qa'al had stopped breathing, stood shaking in the corner of the longhouse. Tuktukadi's brother stood protectively in front of her, the Tlokwali gathered and watching, waiting to see if their Qa'al would die. They had all felt him slipping away, had come running even as Tuktukadi had stumbled outside and cried to the village for help._

_"Is he lost?" Tuktukadi asked, turning frightened eyes to her brother as Qa'al thrashed on the ground, seizing in his Alpha's arms. "Have the spirits taken his mind?" _

_It had happened to shaman before, in their later years, and no one could remember one as old as their Qa'al who could still travel the spirit world safely. The youngest of the Tlokwali didn't know, but T'sikáti's worried brow smoothed out as Qa'al's breathing suddenly softened, the Third going limp against his Alpha. Tuktukadi ignored her brother's warning and pushed through the wolves, dropping to her knees at Qa'al's side. Her hands shook as she took his head in her lap, and she ran her fingers over his plain features. _

_"You frighten me, Qa'al," Tuktukadi whispered angrily, her fingernails making crescent shapes into the flesh of his neck as she pulled him to her tighter, glaring at anyone who dared tell her she should do otherwise. But no one there cared for a slave girl's fear, not even her brother, not even Qa'al, at least not right now. _

_"What did you see, old friend?" T'sikáti asked quietly, his eyes troubled. "What did you see?"_

_The Third trembled and closed his eyes, tears rolling down his face, his words raw in his throat from his screaming. "You should have left me there, T'sikáti," Qa'al whispered brokenly. "You should have left me to them, they would have taken me. It would have been better that way…"_

_"Leave us, everyone," T'sikáti snarled, and the Tlokwali did as they were told, gathering Tuktukadi and forcing her away as well. T'sikáti waited until his wolves were out of earshot before gathering up his friend in his arms. Qa'al had begun trembling again, as he often did when the spirits had held him too tightly. "Qa'al, what did you see?" the Alpha growled, putting weight behind the order, and Qa'al had no choice to obey._

_"I saw the end of our people, I saw the Kwòlíyoť cease to be. And I think…" The old wolf's voice cracked, and Qa'al turned wet, reddened eyes on his Alpha, his leader and his longest friend, searching for help to make sense of it all. "And I__think it's because of __**me**__."_

_For over five hundred years, Qa'al had spoken to the spirits, and in that time, T'sikáti had never known Qa'al to be wrong. To misinterpret the ancestors and the spirits, yes, but Qa'al was never wrong. If the people were to end, then that was what would be. _

_The fish bowed his head, watching the fishhook silently weep, and then the fish whispered softly to the wolf spirit within the man, "You __**will**__ make him forget."_

_And so the brindle wolf raised his muzzle to the moon, and he sang to her his memories, more than he had intended. And the moon was lonely, so she kept the wolf's memories guarded jealously, never to be returned to him again._

* * *

The little girl spun, round and round, tiny and happy in her grandfather's chair.

Carlisle Cullen was a good man. He cared about people, cared about them being healthy and happy, and he cared even more about his family. Renesmee knew this for a fact. That was why as Carlisle Cullen's only granddaughter, she had sole rights to his leather office chair, the one that could spin three-hundred and sixty degrees, which made it the best chair that Renesmee had ever known. The little girl liked to run, and she liked to jump, and when no one was looking she even liked to skip around and pretend that she was a pony, but no one was ever supposed to know that. But more than almost anything, Renesmee _loved_ to spin round and round in that chair.

"Nessie? Don't make yourself ill," Carlisle chuckled from his seat in the corner of his office, the largest office in this wing of the hospital.

Her grandfather's office was one of Renesmee's favorite places to be. She liked the massive cherry wood desk, even though her grandfather always had to raise his chair so that she could sit behind it comfortably. She liked the matching shelving behind her, stretching from one wall to the other and holding books, medical journals, and a slew of her grandfather's personal items. A few were odd trinkets gathered over the centuries, mostly medical in nature, but most were pictures of their coven, pictures of her grandfather with Esme on his arm, and pictures of her.

Renesmee's favorite was a photograph someone had taken of her grandmother and Dr. Foster, both of them at a circular conference room table in a darkened room, their heads tipped together and their glasses of champagne raised as they grinned at the camera. It had been the faculty Christmas party at Johns Hopkins a few years ago, one of the premier teaching hospitals in the country, and that was the night her grandfather had shocked the staff by offering his resignation to the head of medicine. Carlisle was leaving them for a surgical staff position in the tiny town of Forks, Washington, and he had shocked them even more by taking his protégé, Misty Foster, with him. Dr. Foster's career should have taken her bigger, better places than Forks, but it seemed that where Dr. Cullen went, so was Dr. Foster to follow.

The little girl liked the picture because she liked seeing her grandmother smile like that, so happy and carefree. But she liked spinning round and round even more.

"Nessie?" Carlisle looked up from his place on the far wall, where a microscope had been set up on a small table.

"I won't, Grandpa," she promised, giving him a pretty smile that he could only see half the time, because half the time she was smiling at the shelves and the walls instead. There was an anatomy book on her lap, going with her Grandpa to his office when he wasn't on call always made Renesmee want to study her sciences, but to be honest she was a little distracted. In a couple days was Thanksgiving, and she was going to get to see her wolf again. It had been two weeks since she had seen him.

"Grandpa? Are you sure that Mister Jack got our invitation to Thanksgiving dinner?" Renesmee asked, unable to stop herself even though she knew what her grandfather's answer would be. He had answered this question several times already today, but Carlisle just smiled fondly, even as he peered into his microscope, adjusting the focus as he did.

"I'm quite sure, Nessie," Carlisle chuckled. "But you're welcome to call Jacob if you're worried."

"I called him twice yesterday," Renesmee admitted sheepishly, and Carlisle leaned away from his work long enough to wink at her and write something down.

"Something tells me that Jacob doesn't mind," her grandfather said. "He is your Alpha after all, now. That means he feels a responsibility to you, Nessie, and a deep level of affection. Jacob didn't mind you calling him before you became part of his Pack, so I very much doubt he's bothered by it now."

Renesmee smiled again, and then she spun a little slower, even as she continued memorizing the names and functions of the different digestive system organs. "Jacob says that Mister Jack isn't mad at me for not seeing him last week," Renesmee told her grandfather, knowing that she was allowing herself to become distracted but finding it hard not to be. "He said that Mister Jack understands."

"He is imprinted on you, Renesmee," Carlisle said, his voice slightly reserved, but not as much as the others in her family tended to be when she discussed her imprinting. Which she did. _All_ the time. "If I understand correctly, there is very little that an imprinted wolf will not at least _try_ and understand about his imprint. You won't be the first little girl to become ill and have to pass on spending time with her friends."

Her friends. Renesmee liked that. Although 'ill' wasn't the most accurate term. For several days last week, including the day that her wolf was supposed to come see her, Renesmee had been nearly overcome with her thirst. Another growth spurt had triggered it, and that growth spurt had been so fast that her mother and father had sat with her day and night, giving her cup after cup of blood to try and ease the pain of her newborn hunger. Mister Jack had apparently come when it started getting really bad, but Renesmee's father had said that her wolf had stayed outside the house, back in the woods and keeping his distance. Her Alpha had shown up as well, concerned and wanting to see her, but it was for Jacob's safety and not ill will that the Alpha had been kept away from her.

Renesmee had been glad. She really didn't want to be the imprint that ate their Alpha.

The need for fresh blood had been stronger than ever before, and her mother had admitted that when their supplies had run out, Renesmee's wolf had begun hunting for her, ranging far to bring her game from which to feed off of. Renesmee never saw this, she only saw the plastic cups with the purple flowers, her favorite ones, full of pain easing blood. Logically, Renesmee could deduce that if Mister Jack had hunted for her, he couldn't be too mad. Maybe he would _want_ to come to Thanksgiving. Although maybe Thanksgiving would offend him because of the cultural destruction caused to the native populations by the European invasion into the New World. Maybe an invitation to Thanksgiving was an insult, and he would be mad at her. Maybe—

"Nessie, I can hear you thinking from all the way over here," Carlisle chuckled. "He'll come to dinner. And as long as you're feeling well, I'm sure that Jacob and Seth will show up as they always do. Please stop worrying so much."

"Yes, Grandpa."

Renesmee felt much better now, so much so that her grandfather had felt she could be brought safely to the hospital while he did some paperwork and caught up on a few cases. Plus, it made Renesmee feel less like a monster, knowing that she could smell the humans and the blood around her and be more interested in spinning round instead.

Spinning was starting to catch up with her, she had drank twice her fill before coming here just to be safe, and Renesmee felt pretty sloshy. She had felt much sloshier last week, she must have drained a half a dozen elk dry, elk that one would have to range pretty far to find right now. The little girl really wanted to get to talk to her wolf to thank him for being so kind to her, but her wolf didn't have a phone, and he was following the rules set about seeing her. Which made her wonder…

"Grandpa? If Mister Jack comes to Thanksgiving on Thursday, will he still get to come over on Saturday as well?"

Carlisle leaned back in his chair and scratched out what he had written, writing something else in its place. He considered her question, and then gave her a smile. "I think that depends on quite a few things, Nessie, but those are things you don't need to be worrying about." He turned off the microscope light and started to put his things away, and then seemed to reconsider it. "Renesmee, come over here for a moment, I want you to see something."

Renesmee stopped her spinning and obediently stood up, grinning when her full belly sloshed one last spinning circle as she stayed in place. Then she went across the office to her grandfather.

"Here, Renesmee," Carlisle said, handing her a slide. "Do you remember how to work with this particular microscope?"

"Yes, Grandpa," she said, making sure to not touch the glass anywhere but the sides of the slide. Her Grandfather's vampire skin didn't produce any human skin oils, but Renesmee's would, and fingerprints would mess up the slide for viewing.

"Okay, turn it on and adjust the eyepiece so that you only see one illuminated circle, not two circles overlapping," Carlisle instructed, and Renesmee did as she was told. "Now, Nessie, I want you to look at the slide. Do you know what it is? Without using your nose?"

That was hard to do, because Renesmee had already scented the film from across the room. "It's a blood sample, Grandpa."

"Exactly," Carlisle nodded, sounding pleased. "This is called a blood film, and you can see that I did a thin and a thick smear on it. Now, look at the thin smear and tell me what you see."

"I see…red blood cells."

"Yes, the bi-conclave cells are red blood cells, Nessie. The irregular shaped ones are white blood cells, but they are harder to see than the red blood cells under this kind of a microscope. The scanning electron microscope we have at home shows their structure better," Carlisle told her, and Renesmee nodded. Her grandfather often let her see what he was working on at home, so microscopes were nothing new to the little girl.

Renesmee peered into this older, more dated microscope and then she smiled. "They look like bubbles with this one, Grandpa."

Carlisle chuckled and handed her a second slide. "I guess they do at that, Nessie. Now look at this one and tell me what you see."

"I see red blood cells again, but it looks like there are more in the sample. And more white blood cells too."

"Very good," her grandfather praised her. "The first blood film is from a normal human, Renesmee. Actually, it was donated by Misty this afternoon so I would have something to compare it to. This is pretty standard for a human blood film, although if Misty got a little more rest and stopped working so hard she'd probably have a higher white blood cell count. Now the second one is a blood sample I took from you last month, Nessie, when you were feeling normal. What do you think that means?"

Renesmee thought about it, and as she did, the little girl sat down on her grandfather's knee. "I have a higher red blood cell count than Dr. Foster does. The red blood cells mean I get more oxygen to my system than a normal human, and the white blood cells mean that I have a more active immune system. Grandpa? If someone has a high white blood count, doesn't that mean that their body is fighting off an infection?"

"In a human, yes," Carlisle admitted. "But you heal faster than a human, Renesmee, and the ratio between red and white blood cells is about the same as it is in Misty's blood film."

Renesmee thought about that, and then she looked up at him hopefully. "So I'm the same, just…extra?"

Carlisle chuckled and gave her a hug, dropping a kiss on the top of her bronze curls. "Exactly, Nessie. I know you worry a lot about how different you think you are from everyone, but on a molecular level, you're very much the same. Just a little extra. So stop worrying so much, okay?"

Renesmee nodded, smiling and tucking her head on her grandfather's shoulder.

"Yes, Grandpa," she said, before giving him a kiss on his cheek. Carlisle hugged her tightly before telling her to go back to her studies while he finished up. There were a couple more blood films on the table, safely nestled in a foam holder, but Renesmee figured that the rest was her grandfather's work and nothing more. She went back to learning the digestive system, and after a moment or two she began spinning again.

"…Grandpa? Are you _sure_ that Mister Jack got our invitation to Thanksgiving dinner?"

"Yes, Nessie, I'm _sure_."

* * *

"Sims, are you sure you want to do this?"

It was the third time that Embry had asked that exact same thing tonight, and from where she stood in their bathroom getting ready, Samantha smiled. "Embry, it's dinner with my _dad_. I'm pretty sure that I'll survive." She began humming along with the radio as a wonderfully muscled and pleasantly shirtless man stepped into the doorway behind her. Samantha grinned at her boyfriend through the mirror, adding. "Although if you're so worried about it, I'm sure I can be convinced to stay in tonight."

She waggled her eyebrows at him suggestively, and Embry snorted. When Samantha waggled her rear end at him, even as she continued to try and tame her short hair into a ponytail, Embry almost cracked a smile. Almost. So Samantha added a wiggle to her waggle, and topped it off with a particularly hearty shake, and Embry finally snickered, stepping into the bathroom and moving behind her. His hands felt heavy and good on her hips, and for his enjoyment she continued to wiggle to the music. Embry grinned outright, playfully popping her on the rear end and stealing her hairbrush.

"Stop fussing, you look fine," Embry told Samantha, wrapping his arm around her as he held the hairbrush above her head, too high for her too reach it. "And it's not your dad I'm worried about tonight, it's the rest of them."

"The rest of who? Jennings and them? These are the same guys that were at Dad's almost every night, Embry," Samantha reminded him as she jumped and failed to grab the brush. "Plus, Dad said no to having Thanksgiving with us later. He still likes you about as much as your mom and Billy like me, so this is Carter family bonding time."

Her statement wasn't exactly accurate. Samantha was pretty sure that her father liked Embry more than Billy liked her, and she was positive Embry's mom hated her. But it didn't bother Samantha excessively because in their brief and single meeting, Embry's mom hadn't seemed like she liked much of anything.

"Jake has plans for the whole Pack this Thanksgiving anyways," Embry chuckled. "Where we're going, I doubt you'd want your Dad to be there."

"Where are we going?"

"Can't tell you, or I'll have to kill you," Embry teased as he continued to wave the brush above her head, and Samantha growled at him. Her growls were getting better these days.

"Embry, you're being mean," Samantha grumped. "Gimme!" She may or may not have pointedly tapped the wolf tooth tucked discretely in the back of her jeans, covered by her sweater. Instead of being intimidated, Embry just laughed.

"You look pretty, sweetheart, and if you end up look any prettier, I'll have to take you up on that offer of convincing you to stay home," Embry chuckled, nuzzling her neck and smiling against her ear. "And then my Alpha _and_ my Beta are gonna be pissed they have to run patrol alone. Your idea of family bonding time is kind of skewed, Sims."

"Says the guy that regularly comes home from Black family Sunday dinners with battle scars," Samantha chuckled as she tried one last time to grab her hairbrush before giving up. Embry kept his arm around her waist as she started putting on some eye shadow, and his mottled eyes watched her contentedly. He did that a lot, watched her doing normal things, as if they mattered so much to him.

"You look pretty," Embry told her quietly, as if he meant it completely.

Samantha blushed a little despite her smile. "Flatterer," Samantha teased, and her boyfriend chuckled, his large fingers carefully adjusting the chain on her neck, a slender necklace tucked under her sweater.

"Always," he murmured, leaning down and kissing the nape of her neck lingeringly, before turning her in his arms. "Brady'll be there?" Embry asked, as if that made the idea of her going to her father and Bradley Jenning's 'meeting' a better idea. Samantha didn't care about the meeting part. She just cared about the dad part.

Samantha nodded, her fingertips gripping his shoulders for balance as he moved in closer, the wolf hunting his mate, inhaling her scent as his eyes drifted down her form. "I'm picking him up from Kim and Jared's in twenty minutes. Which is good, because I need five more minutes to get ready." Samantha recognized that look and tapped him on the nose, grinning. "Embry, there really isn't time..."

"It only takes ten minutes to get there," Embry decided, and Samantha laughed out loud as she was suddenly hoisted off her feet, her legs wrapping around Embry's waist as he carried her back to their bedroom. "That gives me five minutes," he informed her with a sexy smile. Embry dropped Samantha onto her back on the bedding, his long muscled body crawling over hers. "Five whole minutes, one bed, one girlfriend, what to do, what to do…?"

Seven minutes and a few helpful suggestions later, Embry groaned and nipped her neck one last time, nuzzling his nose along her jaw before kissing her and telling her to have fun tonight. Samantha ended up having to change everything she was wearing, figuring if she could smell the sex on her, then Brady would be gagging in the truck, but Embry didn't seem to be bothered by it one bit. In fact he had the audacity to give her a smug smirk as she backed the vehicle out of the drive.

"Try not to beat anyone up tonight, sweetheart," Embry told her teasingly through her open truck window, and Samantha stuck her tongue out at him, but she couldn't help her grin. It was good to know that she would be coming right back here later tonight, no matter what happened, because this was her home. She had a home, and it was with Embry. He had a home and it was with her.

The thought made her feel all warm and happy inside, and it was worth hitting the brakes for. Samantha slid out of the truck so that she could jog over to the wolf, the dark eyed one that was still leaning sexily against the house, watching her leave and watching her return to him again.

There was something about having almost lost the person you loved so much that made you appreciate them all the more. So what if Samantha found herself almost embarrassingly plastered over Embry these days when they were alone? It was hard not to be when the look in his eyes told her that he loved her so much, so _hard_, that it had him on his knees.

Samantha was late picking Brady up, but it was hard to feel too badly, not when Samantha remembered the look in Embry's eyes when he had finally let her go. And if Brady cared that she was late, the young wolf didn't show it. He was too busy playing Jenga with Kim and Cassie, and drinking a little too heavily from the bottle that Collin had brought with them to Kim's home. When she knocked on the door, it was Collin who answered, the handsome young wolf giving her a bright grin before wrinkling his nose.

"Whoa, way to mark your territory, Emb," Collin joked, and Samantha went scarlet when he added, "Hey Brade, you better plug your nose tonight, dude. The Alpha's imprint's been marked. I think Emb pissed on her."

"Shuddup brat," Samantha growled, but he just laughed at her and opened the door wider so she could come inside. Her own nose could smell Embry on her, but she could also smell alcohol on Collin. "Are you drunk?" she asked in a lowered voice, and Collin snickered, leaning in conspiratorially.

"As a fucking skunk," he told her happily, snagging an arm around her, and Samantha flinched inadvertently. Collin was too drunk to notice, but Kim, who saw the uncomfortable expression on Samantha's face, sighed and threw a pillow at the pair as they walked deeper into the living room. It was well aimed and bounced off Collin's face.

"Get off of her, Collin, and get over here. It's your turn," Kim said, and Samantha shot the older girl a grateful look. Kim had been there the last time someone had grabbed up Samantha without her expecting it, and even if the older girl seemed reserved and distant around Samantha these days, Kim was lightening quick to back the guys off when they accidentally closed in too tightly. A panic attacked Sims was not a fun Sims at all. Collin immediately remembered himself, remembered that Samantha didn't like being crowded, and he dropped his arm with an apologetic smile.

"Opps. Sorry, Sims," Collin muttered before giving Brady a broad sloppy grin. "Heya, Brade, are you suuuuure you have to go tonight?"

"Are you still going?" Brady asked Samantha from his seat next to Kim, looking twice as sober as Collin, not that Samantha necessarily believed it.

Samantha nodded, saying, "Yeah, Dad invited me so I'm going for him. I'm pretending it's our Thanksgiving dinner," she added with a chuckle. Brady just groaned and staggered to his feet, not nearly as graceful as normal, giving Samantha a less than pleased look, which confused her.

"Jenga!" Cassie declared brightly, and then the little blonde imprint frowned as the stack of wooden tiles stayed exactly in place. "I don't think I really understand this game," she decided. "Can we go back to playing Twister?"

"_No_," both wolves and Kim stated firmly at the same time, and Samantha grinned when Cassie winked at her.

"They don't like the groping," Cassie smirked, "But I still haven't figured out why. The groping's the best part."

"Hey, Brady, don't go on my account," Samantha turned back to the young wolf. "I'm just hanging out with my dad and his friends."

Brady just grunted at her and said something in Quileute to Collin that Samantha only caught part of, something involving Kim, Cassie, and dinner, but that's all Samantha could interpret. Collin's answer was to flip Brady off, and Samantha chuckled, shaking her head and waving a little at Kim and Cassie as she went outside, Brady at her heels. Brady wrinkled his nose when he hopped in the passenger seat, and he gave Samantha a smirk as she started the truck up.

"What, you and Emb getting freaky in here now, too?" Brady asked, and it was now that Samantha could smell the alcohol on his breath as well. "You two are like fucking bunnies."

"Okay, alky," Samantha shook her head, rolling her eyes as she caught the scent of alcohol again. "Hell, Brady, how much did you and Collin drink? You reek."

"You can smell it?" Brady seemed surprised. "I didn't have _that_ much tonight." Samantha wasn't sure she bought that, but she let it go, turning up the radio. Brady smirked at her choice and changed the channel. She changed it back. When he changed it one more time, just to be a brat, Samantha rolled her eyes and let that go as well. Brady seemed pleased that he had won, and he settled back into his seat more comfortably.

"Brady? Why did Embry and Collin both try to stop us from coming tonight?" she asked, idly fingering the piercing in her ear. It had become a habit, one that reminded her of who she was, where she'd been, and what she wasn't planning on letting happen to her again anytime soon.

"You'll see," Brady grunted at her, looking out the window at the snowflakes starting to fall. "Just don't…don't say anything they can use against us, Sims."

Samantha signaled a turn, pulling into the pizza place and giving Brady a hard look. "I'm not a traitor, Brady," she said flatly, and Brady immediately dropped his eyes.

"Sorry," he muttered, waiting until she turned away before he hopped out of the truck. "I didn't mean it like that," he added, sounding uncomfortable as Samantha slid out of her own side and came around the front of Embry's truck. She smelled something that bothered her, that played on the edges of her senses, and it made her feel…tight. Like too much bone and sinew for not enough skin. The music from the bar was already too loud, even out here, and for a moment Samantha felt overwhelmed. And angry.

Why was she angry?

The Alpha wanted to know why she was angry too, his presence a curious push on her senses, and by the time Samantha had shoved Jake away (how could she wordlessly explain what she couldn't even put to words in the first place?), Brady had pulled her attention again. His head was down, his shoulders ducked, and he looked miserable. He thought _she_, his Alpha's imprint, was angry with _him_, the second lowest wolf in the Pack, and that made him pull himself inside his shell even more. It instantly struck her wrong, made her anger spike, although not towards him. Samantha didn't think about it as she reached over and snagged Brady's chin, forcing his head up and making him hold her eyes.

There were people in the parking lot, so she made this fast and to the point. "You would have _died_ for me down there, Brady," Samantha said in a low, hard voice, breaking a silence that they had held between them since June. "You're the _only_ reason I'm still here, and I haven't forgotten that. Get your eyes out of the dirt and don't you forget it either."

Samantha let him go, shaking her head at herself as she stepped away. She didn't like to play Pack politics, didn't like to order anyone around based on the fact that she was Jake's imprint, especially not when she had chosen Embry over the Alpha. But she and Brady were connected now from surviving a very traumatic experience together, and they may not see eye to eye but Samantha liked to think that they were becoming friends. That scent, the one that had bothered her so much was fading, and it made her anger fade, made it easier to give him a rueful smile.

"Pushy broad, aren't I?" she chuckled. "Come on, I'm starving. Think we'll get a free meal out of this?"

She received a grunt for an answer, but Brady looked better, less unhappy as he followed her inside the pizza parlor. It was still strange coming here and not seeing Paul behind the bar, his severe expression scaring away anyone not willing to meet his amused caramel-colored eyes. It was strange but Samantha realized that she missed him, she missed Paul in the Paul slot of their Pack and their lives.

Her cell phone rang only moments after her emotions spiked a second time, the unexpected feeling of missing Paul so deeply twisting her guts. It was Jacob, and Samantha hit the end call button. He wouldn't take it as her being rude. The Alpha was just checking in on her the way he always did if she wasn't with Embry and her emotions started swinging on her, the way they had been prone to doing since Calgary. If Jake wanted her for something else, he would call a second time. No second call came, so Samantha stuffed her phone in her back pocket, weaving through the crowds of people towards the largest gathering in the back of the restaurant.

They must have pushed at least four tables together to make room for all of those gathered, and Samantha quickly picked her father's head out of the crowd of Quileute tribal members. Joe Carter hadn't shaved in a couple days, and the scruffy beard gave him a more aggressive countenance than normal. He was an intimidating looking man, nearly as tall as Embry was and heavy with slabs of muscle turned slightly to fat with age. Even those sitting near him were giving him a wide berth. There was an empty chair next to him, and Samantha couldn't help but smile at that. Her father had invited her here tonight, and had saved her a seat.

Joe actually wanted his daughter sitting next to him.

As strange as it sounded, Samantha missed her father. True, she was a lot happier living with Embry, even though they didn't see each other that much because of his patrols. She liked the fact that as broke as they were, she could always find something in their house to eat. She liked that the water always stayed on, and that the heat stayed on. She even liked that Embry threw a _fit_, a full on temper tantrum, when she tried to keep her things in her duffle and tucked in his closet.

There was a golden ring that fit Embry's ring finger, one that had hung on a chain on her neck since the day Samantha had moved in with her boyfriend. Embry had told her that the day she gave him the ring back was the day his ass was getting her one that fit her ring finger, and until then she could keep it. He knew where he belonged, where he wanted to be, who he wanted there beside him. Things weren't always easy or perfect, but for two people with two very real sets of demons, they were growing very good at holding each other until the worst of the nightmares were gone.

Right now life was the best it had been for Samantha in a long time, but that didn't mean she didn't have her darker days, her days where she still wasn't sure about this supernatural world she had been pulled into, where she worried about herself and the people she cared about being in that world. And it was those darker days that she missed her father the most.

So it may have been sad, but it meant something to her that he had invited her here tonight. Enough that she ignored the eyes of the others as she walked over, hooking her arm around her father's neck in a quick hug. "Hey Dad," she said, wishing her voice didn't soften slightly the way it always seemed to when she addressed him.

"About damn time, girl," Joe grunted at her, but Samantha didn't miss the fact that he let her hug him, and he even hauled the chair next to him out a few inches with one big hand so she could sit down.

"I see she brought the riffraff with her," Bradley Jennings joked to those gathered in a loud, slightly intoxicated voice. "Don't stand there like an idiot, boy, sit your ass down."

Brady flushed and Samantha's eyes narrowed as she realized that the reason that her father had saved her a seat was because the rest of the seats had been taken. It may have been a Sunday night but the place was packed. Everyone knew it, too. Jennings was just messing with Brady, trying to embarrass his own son. Samantha didn't like that so she started to stand up, but Brady shook his head at her, moving around to lean on the wall off to the side. Her father took her shoulder and firmly pushed her back down into her seat.

"Nice to see some people never change," Samantha said in the most pleasant voice she could muster. "So Mr. Jennings, beer huh? Did you run out of boxed wine at home?"

Joe Carter snorted, leaning back and draining his own beer before wiping his mouth.

"Your girl got cocky since she started nailing Call for room and board, didn't she, Joe?" Jennings chuckled, raising his beer bottle in a mock salute to her. A few people snickered at that, but Samantha just grinned. She wasn't embarrassed by her relationship with Embry. She was proud as hell of him.

"I would have nailed him for free, but the room and board are nice perks," she played along with the insult, settling back into her chair and holding Brady's father's eyes. "How's your bike, Mr. Jennings? Did you ever get the dent out?"

Bradley Jennings flushed very similarly to how Brady had done, and Joe Carter barked out a laugh at Samantha's smug look. "You get more like your mother every day, girl," Joe chuckled, shaking his head, and Samantha winked at her father before letting her eyes roam the table.

About five of the men were her father's normal group, and a couple had brought their wives and their older children. Most notably was a young man a few years older than Samantha, one that looked exactly as Brady would have if phasing hadn't given the young wolf height and bulk. And next to him, looking bored and edgy, sat Callie Jennings.

The young man that looked like Brady caught her eye and gave her a calculating gaze, before standing up and leaning over the table, offering her his hand. "Derek Jennings," he introduced himself, giving her a friendly smile. Samantha leaned forward and shook his hand, ignoring Callie's very direct stare.

"Samantha Carter," she replied, casting a quick questioning glance over her shoulder at Brady.

Brady grunted, giving Derek a flat stare. "Derek's my cousin, Callie's older brother. He moved away from the rez a few years ago," Brady told her. And then suddenly Brady gave Derek an almost feral grin. "Derek used to date Kim, didn't you, Derek?"

Samantha watched Derek's cheeks heat up, and she saw anger flash in the older boy's eyes. There was no love lost between these two, it was obvious. Samantha looked at her father, who seemed bored, as if he could care less that the Jennings clan were at each other's throats.

"Ignore him, Derek, he's just trying to piss you off," another young man at the far end of the table said, and Samantha recognized this guy too. It was Nick, the first student to have approached her during lunch her first day of school in La Push. He was sitting between an older couple, presumably his parents, and Nick gave her a quirky smile. "Heya, Samantha."

"Nick," she nodded, still feeling someone staring at her. It was Callie, and Samantha sighed, turning her head. "Yes, Callie? May I help you?"

"Nope," Callie grinned back, taking a drink of the soda in front of her. "Hey Brady? Has Jared gotten bored of Kim yet, or are you just keeping her warm while he's gone? Uncle Bradley says you haven't been home in weeks."

Brady growled, using his shoulders to push himself off the wall, but his father leveled a look at him that made even Samantha feel like ducking. "Whatever you three are doing over there, I don't want to hear it, boy," Jennings snapped in a loud voice, making not only Brady but Derek and Callie all simultaneously flinch. "There's enough wrong in this town without adding whatever Qahla's been keeping you and that Connweller girl up to. Callie, shut your mouth."

Samantha watched, a little stunned as all three did as they were told, even though Brady seemed to be fighting to hold his tongue and she could hear a soft snarling noise come from his chest despite the loud music. That scent was back, playing around her senses despite the thick smell of baking cheese and alcohol in the air.

"Get on with it, Jennings," her father said in a gruff voice, "We're here for a reason." At his words a couple of the adults at the table nodded. It was interesting watching people reacting to him. Samantha knew that her father wasn't well liked on the rez, at least by the people in the circles Samantha usually ran in, but as much as those gathered at the table obviously were intimidated, they were listening.

Jennings grunted, aimed a hard look at his family, and then cleared his throat. "We're here to talk about the fact that we don't like the direction the tribal leadership is taking us," Jennings said firmly. "I think everyone here has firsthand proof that the Council is flagrantly abusing their power, and misallocating the tribe's resources."

To be honest, Samantha was a little shocked Bradley Jennings knew what 'misallocating' meant.

There were almost universal nods of agreement, and Samantha realized that they were listening to both her father and Jennings, in equal amounts. Samantha didn't know what exactly Jennings meant by that, but she did hear Brady's soft snort of disagreement. So did Jennings, who turned a hard look on his teenage son. "You got something to say, boy?"

Whether Brady had something to say or not, he kept his mouth shut and stared silently across the restaurant, and Jennings grunted, continuing in a lower voice. "I think it has also become clear that the reason why is because of too much control from Billy Black on the council. Our chief is a symbolic position, true, but it has weight. Tribal councils don't like to go against their chief's wishes, and with Black holding both the position of elder and chief, he holds complete power over what happens with the tribe. Harry Clearwater and Black were always voting in tandem, and Sue Clearwater does the same, following Black's lead on every matter. Ateara is outvoted every time."

Jennings looked at Samantha's father, who took a drink from his beer and flagged the waitress for another round. The waitress returned with drinks and a slew of pizzas, one of which Samantha's father pointed her to. As she took a slice and tried to offer it to Brady, Joe peeled the label from his bottle, his low voice rumbling across the tables. "Ateara votes as much with Black as Clearwater does," Joe grunted. "I wouldn't give a rat's ass about it if they were voting for what the people _want_, but they're not."

The woman next to Nick frowned and nodded. "Sue Clearwater never should have been elected to the Council, that's true. But we trusted her, and how could any of us have known that she would use her seat to her own gain?"

"I did," Joe grunted and Jennings nodded. Brady had said no to the pizza, so Samantha bit into the slice herself. Having food in her mouth kept her from telling them all that they were assholes for talking about Sue. She didn't know what 'gain' they were talking about, but Samantha liked Sue, and her instinct was to defend Leah and Seth's mother. Still, it was better to find out what all this was about before running her mouth.

"Joe and I, we've been warning all of you about this for years, and now it's coming around full circle," Jennings added, lighting up a cigarette despite the fact that no one was supposed to smoke in here. "The Council's bleeding us dry, and we sit here and take it like a bunch of pussies. We need to figure out a way to get them out and a new Council in."

Joe could see her growing uncomfortable as she munched on her piece of pizza, and he looked at her pointedly. "You wanna say something, Sam?" Joe asked, and Samantha shrugged, trying to bite down on her dinner and her temper.

"I just don't really know what everyone's talking about, Dad," Samantha told him. "I like Sue Clearwater, she's always been nice to me. And the others…I just don't really care. They're jerks but whatever. Screw 'em."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Brady shift. He didn't like where this was going, and Samantha understood why. It was common knowledge in the Pack that of the three Council members, only Sue Clearwater was endeared to the Alpha's imprint. There was a lot of bad blood there. Hell, Billy Black still grimaced every time he saw her, and the last time Quil Senior had seen her and Embry holding hands, he had dressed them both down in front of the Pack for betraying their Alpha. Jake had cut that off quickly, but still…

A scene flashed through Samantha's mind, her on her knees, throwing up and sobbing on the top of a cliff. Embry, his eyes completely black as he stood in front of her and claimed fault to protect her from the wolves, from the Council. A Council who had wanted that, who had wanted her to phase and be forced into loyalty. A Council who stole her medical files to investigate her, who had used her own mother and father against her…A new Council could be really bad, but in Samantha's opinion the current Council wasn't all that great. Except for Sue. Samantha liked Sue.

"I don't believe that shit for one second," Joe growled, but at the look of remembrance in her eyes, his growl softened. "Or maybe you only know what they've told you, Sam."

"They've had her since day one, Mr. Carter," Nick spoke up, settling back in his chair. "Clearwater's been on her since she came here, running everyone off that would tell her anything real, filling her head with their lies."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Samantha growled, shifting forward. "I can think for myself, Nick, and I'm not as stupid as you're acting like I am."

"Stupid enough to drink the Kool-Aid," Callie snickered, taking another sip of her soda, and Brady growled again. Callie just smirked at him.

Derek gave his sister a warning look and then he turned to Samantha. "There are secrets here in the rez," Derek told her in a lowered voice. "Secrets the Council are keeping from the tribe, and we all know it. Secrets that Brady over there is helping them keep, which is bullshit, by the way, _cousin_. It's pretty obvious that there's a group of the tribe that are up to something, something that makes the Council do everything they can to protect them, even if it means hurting the rest of the tribe."

Samantha didn't understand that either, and Derek glanced at his uncle, who was watching both Brady and her with piercing eyes. Watching in case they gave something away.

"The government gives the tribe a certain amount of money each year, money meant to help the tribe," someone Samantha didn't know spoke up, looking unhappily at the gathered group. "The economy is bad, unemployment of La Push residents is at an all-time high, but do you see the Council doing anything to help? Do you see them using that money to help provide more jobs, to supplement those of us that have lost healthcare? To improve our schools or our cultural center? No. Our library is pathetically small, our roads are getting worse by the day, and I think we've all seen how little attention is being paid to bringing in more tourism. These days it's like the Council is trying to keep the world out, instead of helping the economy by bringing the world in."

Joe glanced at Samantha pointedly. "Helping the entire tribe is more important than helping a _select few_, girl."

Samantha cringed, because that she understood, at least in part. The select few that were being helped monetarily by the Council were very obvious, anyone could see that despite who discrete the Council tried to be when cutting checks to the Pack members for food, rent, and bills they simply couldn't cover. Embry hadn't been able to completely make mortgage on his business last month, and so the Council had helped. It had only been two hundred dollars, Embry had scraped together the rest, but still…

From an outsider's viewpoint it must look pretty bad, but what could the Council do? Tell the tribe that they were spending all the tribe's money keeping the protectors of the tribe housed and fed? The Pack put their lives on the line every day, faced dangers that Samantha herself had experienced, and Samantha knew exactly how screwed a human was when they faced a vampire alone. The one time it had happened, Samantha had almost died, and there wasn't a single person at this table that could have done any better. The people of La Push were kept safe day and night by the Pack, but you couldn't appreciate something that you never knew in the first place.

For the first time since they had gotten here, Samantha's eyes dropped. She never should have let it happen because Jennings moved in for the kill.

"Think about it, girl," Jennings growled. "You've seen how little business Embry Call gets, and he still keeps you _both_ roofed and fed. We've all seen that bike Clearwater's daughter runs around on, and we've seen you on it too. Every time a job opens up around here, the Council pulls strings, puts pressure on whoever runs the place, and just about forces the owner to hire who they want. If Callie here and Brady went for the same job on the rez, you _know_ who's getting it."

"The one who _didn't_ spend a year in juvie," Brady muttered, and Callie glared at him. Samantha just flashed her Packmate a grin.

"Okay, that may be true," Derek admitted. "Sorry Cal, but it is, so stop giving me that look. But I would put money on the fact that Brady would get hired over Nick any day of the week."

Samantha didn't like the fact that Brady was being singled out, and so she sat up, pulling their attention as she cleared her throat. "So basically you're saying that Brady's cooler than Callie and Nick, and I would have to agree. But my question is this: in a place this small, who doesn't pull strings to get their loved ones, their friends and families, jobs? Hell, I used to live in Chicago, and it happened there _all_ the time. No offense, but this isn't a reservation specific problem."

"It is when it gets this fucked up," Joe stated, pulling out his own pack of cigarettes and offering Samantha one. She smiled at that, shaking her head, and Joe shrugged, lighting up. "Listen, girl, when your ass walked into this town, you got work because you fought for it. And I tried my ass off to _keep_ that job for you when you were in the hospital, but someone didn't want you working, and it wasn't me. You got fired 'cause someone _wanted_ you fired, and it ain't anyone sitting here."

Samantha stared at him in shock, and then she stared at the table. She wanted to look at Brady, to see if that was true, but she refused to put him on display the way the others had been doing. She hadn't liked her job so much, but damn, she had needed it. But then she had gone to work for Embry instead…

_Embry_.

Samantha grimaced but then smoothed that expression away. She would deal with that later, ask him about it later, but her gut already told her the truth. Embry loved her, but his wolf was fighting him for control, and that fight for balance left him overly dominating sometimes. And just like every other wolf out there, when push came to shove, there was simply nothing Samantha could do to fight them. Touching her ear piercing again was instinctual, as was shifting to feel the weight of the weapon tucked into the back of her jeans, beneath her sweater. She could fight them more now than ever, but not Embry. She loved him. They would deal with this later, together.

"Hell, Coho disappeared for three months and they still tried to get him his old job back," her father was saying as she focused back in on the conversation. "Tried to force McCoy into hiring him, and half a dozen other places around here too. But Bradley and I took care of that, we made sure Hams knew he had support behind him."

Joe looked a little too smug at his statement, and Samantha gave her father an incredulous look. "You guys kept Paul from getting a job, didn't you?" she asked, feeling sick, and Joe glared at her.

"No, Sam, we kept a job open for someone who _doesn't_ run around here doing hell knows what, leaving for hell knows how long. Do you know how hard Casey busted her ass around this place? She's put her dues in for years, and when Coho left, she deserved that bartending job. Almost lost it too from Council pressure so that Coho could have it back when he showed up again. It ain't right, girl. They tried to get that blonde in here too, to be the new waitress instead of Casey, even though Coho's woman's not even fucking legal and I can list at least four other people who needed that job, people who don't have the Council paying their bills. Look around you, Sam. There's folks hurting here, but all the Council sees are those freaks you run with."

Callie smirked and started playing with her straw wrapper. "The way I see it, princess here is right in the middle of it, and she's either too dumb to know what's happening around her, or she's in on it."

"Back off, Callie," Brady growled, but he only drew angry, distrustful looks from everyone at the table except for Samantha.

"The bitch of it is that my own fucking blood is in on it and he won't say a goddamn thing," Jennings snapped, throwing Brady a vicious glare. "And I can't tell if you're just too much of a pussy to stand up and tell us what's going on, or if you're too fucking dumb like Carter's girl to figure it out yourself."

"Gosh, look at the time," Samantha said, pretending to check a watch she hadn't worn. "It's half past Mr. Jennings is a total asshole. Thanks for the pizza, whoever's paying, but we'll be going now."

"Sit down, Sam," Joe told her in a rough voice, and Samantha allowed him to pull her back down into her seat again, mostly because fighting it would have had Brady throwing a fit. As it was, she could feel the wolf's eyes boring into the hand on her shoulder. "We're not done yet," her dad said. "They had the last year to tell you their side, and now it's our turn. I hoped you'd be more like your momma, she knew things were being kept secret around here, and she _tried_ to find them out. Only she got run out of here the way they ran Joshua Uley out, before either of them could find out the whole truth. But your momma found enough, and I'm pretty sure you can fill in the gaps."

Samantha gave her father a hurt look. "So I'm here because you want me to be your spy? Thanks, Dad." Joe just gave her a flat glare, and Samantha sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry that you all don't like the Council, but that's why they are elected. That's why they have term limits. If you don't like things, elect someone else."

"We can't."

Samantha blinked. "I'm sorry?" That was not what she had learned in her Quileute culture classes.

The man next to Nick gave her a frustrated look and repeated himself. "We _can't_, as of the last scheduled election, the re-elected Council requested an extension on their term lengths. They said that the economy was changing, and it would be in the interest of the Quileute people to keep consistent leadership. That was two years ago, and we, like fools, bought that. We let them extend their term lengths to five years."

"_I_ didn't buy that shit for a second," Jennings grunted, and Samantha's father nodded. "But none of you all were listening yet."

"We're listening now, Bradley," someone else said. "We just don't know how to bring about change. We have three more years before the Council's terms are up and we can elect a new one. By then, who knows how bad things will be?"

"Did you know that we're supposed to have five members on the Council in the first place?" Nick asked her, sharing a nod with Derek. "But the last elections we lost two of the Council members. Paul Coho's uncle and aunt held spots on the Council, but when they stepped down, the Council came back with statistics about the reservation population being down. They don't need five members anymore, that three are enough."

"There's only around seven-hundred and fifty people in the tribe, Nick," Samantha reminded him. "Even with just three Council members, that's a pretty high representative to population ratio."

"We're working on bringing people back in," Joe grunted, and he gave her a piercing look. "You're of age, Sam. It's time you became an official member of this tribe as well. We need fresh blood, young blood, and we need changes. We want the Council back from Black and his cronies, and we want a new Council in charge. No more elders, no more hiding behind traditions we ain't been following for two hundred years."

That thought, the realities of a brand new tribal Council learning about the wolves, made Samantha shudder. Brady shifted, now standing so that she could see him out of the corner of her eye, and he looked deeply unhappily. There were so many risks to them, exposure of the Pack to the public could be so very bad.

Callie misinterpreted Samantha's shudder. "Think about it, princess," Callie said, kicking her foot up on the seat next to her, despite the fact that the seat was occupied by her brother. "Three years under the total control of one man. That sounds more like a dictatorship than a democracy to me."

"The current Council is ignoring so many things," someone else spoke up, someone Samantha didn't know. "I don't want to ignore tradition, but I'm about to lose my home. I have a family with two children that I can barely afford to feed, no matter how many hours I work at the garage in Forks. But when anyone needs mechanic work on the rez, it all goes to Jacob Black or Quil Ateara. Those kids are never around, and I don't care if they can piece a bike together or not. I have twenty years of experience with cars, and I'm getting damn tired of losing business because the tribal chief is putting pressure on everyone to only go to them."

"Remember when Coho's woman busted her car?" Jennings asked. "That could have fed your family for a month, fixing that."

"Cassie gets to choose who works on her car and who doesn't," Samantha defended her Pack, but all she got were resentful looks. "It's a mixed market economy," Samantha growled. "I'm sorry if it sucks, but it's how things are."

"There are ways to save this town, Sam, but cutting work to those who need it and giving work to those that squander it, isn't one of those ways," Joe told her. "What money we get needs to be spent on creating jobs, not supporting those who are failing. At least Call isn't a total idiot. The rez needs businesses, needs jobs, needs ways to keep tourists around. Do you know how few of the residents of La Push live above poverty level?"

Samantha shook her head no, and Jennings gave a snort. "To start with, Sue Clearwater," Jennings growled. "Because no one can afford to go all the way to Forks for food, and no one has the money to start up a competitive business. There's only been one person to get tribal help with a business loan in this last three years, Carter, and I'm pretty sure you know who. Tell me how fair that is?"

Samantha felt her stomach drop, and she knew Brady was reacting to it. He looked miserable again, and Samantha decided a rescue attempt was in order. She thought about Jake, thought about the place in her gut that was forever tied to the Alpha, and then she imagined punching that place as hard as she could. Definitely hard enough to get his attention. Clumsy, he had told her when she had done that before, but it never failed to get her point across. Within moments her phone rang again and this time she opened it up. "Hey," was all she said, and the Alpha grunted at her.

"You okay, apple girl?"

"Yeah, I'll call you later. I'm out with my Dad and Brady." Jake most likely already knew where she was, Embry would have told him, but he waited for her to tell him why she had needed him. Samantha paused a moment, as if she was listening, and then she said, "Yeah, he's here. He looks ready to bail to me, but you'll have to ask him."

It was cruel but effective, and Brady was giving her a frown even as she tossed the phone to him. Brady's frown deepened, but whatever Jake said, Brady had to obey. From what she had said, Samantha was sure the Alpha had picked up on the fact that Brady needed to get out of here. Jake would order Brady home.

The wolf snapped the phone shut, handed it to her. "I'm out," he told her, giving her a grumpy look even though his eyes were relieved. "Let's go." Because he must have had orders to try and get her to leave too. Damn sneaky Alpha. But the key word there was 'try'. It would have to be a bigger deal than this for Jake to get pushy with her, they were finally starting to learn to work together, and the Alpha wouldn't risk that calmness in their imprint bond, a calmness both deeply appreciated.

"I'll catch up with you later, Brady," Samantha told him, and Brady's father gave him a furious look.

"Can't even last one fucking hour in a man's discussion, can you boy?" Jennings spat. "You can go run and tell the Council everything you heard, like the snitch you are, but only when we're done. That's why we wanted you here anyways, but you're staying." He slapped his hand on the table loud enough to make Brady flinch, Derek and Callie doing the same, and it was then and there that Samantha knew without a shadow of a doubt that all of Jennings' family were scared of him. Deeply scared of him.

As the scent returned, smelling sour and of Pack, something inside Samantha crawled closest to the surface than it had ever been, leaving her head fuzzy and her words falling unbidden from her tongue.

"I'm going to kill you, one day, for frightening them."

Silence met her words, a shocked silence as everyone stared at her. Samantha gazed flatly at Bradley Jennings, and Jennings' jaw went slack. Then suddenly Joe Carter began to laugh, a deep booming laugh, and he slapped her on the shoulder, startling her back into herself. "That's my girl," Joe declared, and for the first time ever, he actually sounded proud of her.

Bradley Jennings managed to close his mouth, and he looked as if he didn't know whether to hit her or to laugh. He settled on draining his beer and wiping his mouth off. "_Hell_, Joe, your daughter's as fucking nuts as her momma was," Jennings swore, shaking his head.

Callie was watching her carefully, Derek looked as uncomfortable as Brady had, but Brady simply walked behind Samantha and crouched down next to her.

"Tìxwáli, Sims," Brady murmured softly in Quileute, his voice deeply respectful, but then he turned a challenging look to the rest of the table and added, "_Xw pá_." There was a warning in that, a promise of violence if anyone messed with her while he wasn't around, and Brady stared at his father pointedly before standing and walking off.

Which left only one traitor, one secret keeper in their midst, one that made them as angry and uncomfortable as Brady Jennings did. So Samantha leaned forward on her arms and addressed the group as a whole.

"None of you knows me very well, so I think you ought to start learning now," Samantha said truthfully. "My loyalty is to my father, but that doesn't mean I give a damn about any of you. My loyalty is to my friends, but that doesn't mean I give a damn what the Council does and does not think or want. And above everyone else, my loyalty is to _Embry Call_, and I especially don't give a damn what anyone, including my father or friends think in regards to him. Embry Call, who works harder than you will _ever_ know. He deserves every bit of what he's been given, so you're wasting your breath. Whatever you want from me, you're not going to get it, unless it's something I want in the first place. I'm here to spend time with my dad and to get some pizza. Anything else you want from me, you're shit out of luck."

And then Samantha picked up her drink in her tremoring hands and settled in to watch the rest of this debate, having said her piece. She didn't speak again, not that they didn't try and convince her to, her father especially.

Samantha learned a lot that she wasn't sure the wolves were even aware that the people felt, and more than once Samantha agreed with them. She thought about what they said, and she listened to their fears and their complaints. She watched Callie and Derek, nodding intently at everything their uncle said, and she understood how easy it was to believe an older adult, one that you had always looked to for the answers. She saw the other adults at the table listening the same way as the Jennings siblings, because Jennings, when he was somewhat sober, was very good at convincing people to believe as he did.

Loyalty to her Pack aside, Samantha had to admit that there were validities in their arguments, at least some of the arguments.

The La Push medical clinic was underfunded, and was in danger of losing their nurse that ran it. Infant mortality rates were high, vaccinations were low because of health care costs. The Quileute Days Festival this summer, one of the biggest tourist events in La Push every year, was underfunded as well and not a few tourists had expressed disappointment and said they wouldn't be returning next year. The festival provided money and part time jobs for the younger and older tribal members, jobs that would be lost if tourism slowed. Sport fishing was shifting more and more towards towns that could support both fishing and guest attractions, and La Push was looking rougher by the year. The roads were going to be in need of repaving soon, and so far the Council had proved that the money just wasn't there.

And there was simply no one to tell them why.

Samantha saw the frustrated look in Nick's eyes when the subject changed to tribal college scholarships, and how there were less this year than ever before. She saw Derek nod, there hadn't been enough for him either, and instead of college, he'd ended up working construction in Port Angeles instead. There wasn't a lot someone could do without a college education these days, and it seemed like the ones who were trying were getting overlooked for the "ruffians" of the town. Boys who didn't go to class, who failed out of high school, but who were coddled and cared for by the Council despite what they did.

Derek was angry because the Council had refused to help Callie when Derek had tried to get money for her to go to rehab. Instead Callie had messed up too much, and had ended up in juvie, which may have gotten her clean but hadn't helped her do it the right way. Callie didn't have a lot to say about that, but she did shred her stray wrapper into little bits, and she looked both angry and embarrassed to be having it discussed.

When the alcohol reached the point that the valid points gave way to just angry and pointless accusations about giant animals roaming the woods, conspiracy theories and drug trafficking, Samantha stood up and went home. She had offered to drive her dad, but he was just settling in for the night, and more than likely Casey would be giving him a ride home later. Samantha wasn't sure her dad realized when she left, and she was positive he didn't realize that she had gotten his point, a point that mattered very much to Joe Carter, drunken asshole that he was. There were things going on in La Push that shouldn't be, things that needed to change. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot that Samantha could do about that.

But she knew someone who could.

* * *

For the last three years, the Cullen coven had cordially invited the entire La Push Pack to their home to celebrate Thanksgiving. For the last three years the only ones to show up were Jacob Black and the Clearwater siblings, and always after their own families' celebrations were through. Jacob liked to show up mostly because of Renesmee and Bella, and Seth always had a great time with Edward, although Leah was very open in her admittance that she'd do a lot more than hang out with a group of leeches if it meant she got a second Thanksgiving dinner. But it had become an established fact that the other wolves would rather be anywhere else for the holiday than at the coven.

So Alice had planned her Thanksgiving dinner with as much attention to detail as she ever did, assuming that the normal three wolves would show up, and she had added in an extra place for the newest addition in the coven's lives. No one was particularly happy that Jack had imprinted, but Renesmee had heard her aunts talking about the fact that it had been very convenient having help hunting for her last week, and they grudgingly respected the fact that when Renesmee had been in so much pain that the wolf still hadn't come bursting into their home and making things worse. Jack was welcome in their home if he wanted to come to dinner, and everyone assumed that he would.

No one expected that the entire La Push Pack, imprints included, would show up at the Cullen's front door.

Renesmee had finished getting ready hours ago and had spent the morning reading with her grandfather and playing tag with her Uncle Jasper and Uncle Emmett, all of whom weren't allowed near the kitchen. Besides the two huge turkeys in the oven, Esme was going all out with mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and of course "Seth Clearwater's pumpkin pie." Why was it called that? Because Seth Clearwater always claimed the pumpkin pie and would fight to the death for it.

Last year Leah had tried to make it "Leah Clearwater's pumpkin pie" and all sorts of hell had broken loose. So this year Esme had made sure to make each wolf their own pie, Jack included, because it seemed not only fair but safer to do so. Renesmee had helped her mother bake the pies the night before, and Bella had encouraged her to draw a little "J" in two of the pies, an "L" in the third, and an "S" in the last one.

Emmett and Jasper had just turned on a football game and Rosalie was fusing with Renesmee's hair bow because the little girl was positive it was crooked, and she didn't want her wolf to be embarrassed by having the imprint with the crooked bow. And then the sound of vehicles hit her ears, several all at once as they rolled up the drive, and Renesmee jumped to her feet, causing her Aunt Rose's hands to slip.

"Okay, Nessie, now it really is crooked…what the hell?" Rosalie stood up too, inhaled deeply and shuddered. "Oh my god, he _didn't_."

"Who did what?" Aunt Alice chirped from the kitchen, and then the vampire actually dropped a plate, her nostrils flaring as her eyes grew wide. "_Jacob_ _Black_! What did you _do_?" Alice wailed as the front door burst open, the huge Alpha wolf striding into the house with every member of his Pack that he could bring at his heels.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Bells!" Jacob declared, grabbing up Renesmee's mother and crushing her in a hug so big that it would have possibly broken a human's ribs. "Glad to see me?"

"Jake, you brought _everyone_," Bella stated, looking dumbfounded as humans and wolves came through the door.

"Where's my imprint?" The Alpha bellowed cheerfully, dropping Bella and clapping Edward a little too hard on the shoulder, causing Renesmee's father's knees to buckle at the unexpected action. Emmett already roaring with laughter at the look of horror on Alice's face. "Nessie! Nessie, get your cute little self over here!"

Nessie ditched her bow and went running through the house, because her friends were here, her Pack was here, and her Alpha was calling for her. "Jacob!" Renesmee cried happily, and the Alpha snatched her up, swinging her around in a circle before crushing her in a huge bear hug.

"There's my new girl," Jacob chuckled, giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. "Damn, Nessie, you grew like a weed. Look at her Seth, Nessie's almost as big as her name is."

The Beta stepped up and Renesmee was passed over to him, getting more wet kisses in the process. "Aww, our little bit is a full sized nugget now," Seth decided, and Renesmee giggled when Seth gave her a toss, catching her upside down. "Yep, she definitely feels nugget sized."

"Jacob Black, how many people did you _bring_?" Alice cried as the rest of the Pack poured through the door. "And why didn't you call and _tell_ me?"

"I brought everyone you invited, Alice," Jacob told her, an almost feral grin on his face. "Collin and Brady are patrolling, but they'll be by later. Including the girls…I would say there will be thirteen of us. But us wolves each eat like ten, so in human terms that's eighty-five.

Sam Uley was at his Alpha's heels, carrying a large crock pot, and he grunted as he pushed the pot into Alice's hands. "Happy Thanksgiving," the former Alpha muttered, looking very uncomfortable as Emily smiled weakly and mouthed "Sorry" to a slightly confused Esme. Renesmee recognized Kim and Cassie, both of whom were staring around the room with interest, as if they had walked into an entirely different world. Jared's imprint had her hands full of deviled eggs, and she grinned at Alice before dropping the tray down on top of the crockpot in Alice's arms.

"Happy Thanksgiving," Kim chuckled, "You should probably refrigerate those." Sam and Emily had already made a beeline for Renesmee, ignoring the vampires in the living room, the one that was giving his mate a sympathetic look while simultaneously holding his breath, and the other one that was laughing his ass off.

"Rose, look at her face!" Emmett howled as he pointed at Alice. The pixie like vampire had just been relieved of the eggs and crockpot by an amused looking Edward, only to have cookies and a pan of something that Renesmee couldn't recognize by scent dropped in her arms. The small blonde imprint that had done so gave them all a cheerful smile.

"Hi, Nessie! Hello, the rest of you who aren't Nessie! Wow, you have a nice place here, it's too bad Paul couldn't come, but Paul's not very good with people who aren't nice to Jack and I suppose it's better this way. At least you guys don't have to worry about staring at Jack and being meanies about him, which really isn't fair by the way because he's really nice and he's saved my life and it could have been worse. Something like a badger or a wolverine could have imprinted on her, and that would just be weird. But we'll watch Jack for you, not that any of us could stop him if he took a disliking to you guys for treating him badly. Did you know that he's got this extra grr thing that makes him super strong when people tick him off? Good thing Jack is super nice and didn't get mad about you all being mean, because Paul would have just chewed everyone to bits and taken Nessie out for ice cream. Paul takes me out for ice cream all the time. Nice shoes by the way, Alice, but you really shouldn't try to wear a size larger to make your feet appear more even with your body shape. That's just being vain. Oh hey! Cheese cubes!"

"Be nice, Cassie," Jacob told her, not sounding at all like he meant it, and Cassie winked at him before making a beeline for the snacks table, leaving a stunned and deeply insulted Alice in her wake.

"What the _hell_ did she just say?" Rosalie hissed, but Jacob's brother, Embry had stepped into the house and was giving them all a grin as he handed a casserole dish to Esme.

"Gosh, I love when she does that," Embry chuckled, reaching out and ruffling Alice's hair a touch harder than necessary. Jasper growled warningly, but Embry just smirked at him and winked as Jasper took a defensive position at his mate's side. "The boss tells me that I'm supposed to warn everyone about Chancy and Claire. Don't eat Chancy or Claire, or Sims will sic all of us on you," Embry announced. "And Happy Thanksgiving!"

Then Embry turned his back to Renesmee's family and honed in on her, his contact covered eyes sparkling cheerfully. "I want the new imprint," Embry said decisively, holding out his arms as Sam respectfully shifted out of the ranking wolf's way. Seth laughed at Renesmee's blushing face as the fourth quite literally stole her from the Beta. "Wow, Nessie, you grew again. Pretty soon you're going to be taller than I am."

That had never occurred to her, and Renesmee thought about what life would be like taller than the wolves were. It just seemed strange, and maybe just a little bit wrong. The Pack were larger than life, and part of that was simply being _large_.

"Hey, Jake! Get your ass out here!" a female voice called from out in the drive. It was the she-wolf, Leah. "I'm not carrying all of this shit for you!"

Jake winked at Renesmee and stage whispered, "That's _my_ boss, Nessie," the Alpha snickered. "Better do what I'm told or _I'm_ going to get fired."

Carlisle and Esme had been watching the inpouring of Pack with rather bemused expressions, but the leader of the coven stepped forward as Leah stomped inside, grumbling mightily. "Jacob-," Carlisle started, only to be interrupted by Leah, who had turned on Alice.

"Hey, Alice. Where do you want these?" Leah asked briskly, gesturing to the armful of folding chairs that she was holding. They were mismatched and a few were quite garish colors, but all looked well worn. And broken, there were definitely broken parts. Alice stared at the chairs in horror, and then made a wailing noise and fled into the kitchen, muttering something about not enough food, not enough china, not enough everything. Leah grinned ferally, turned, and stuffed the chairs into Jake's arms. "Good enough for me," Leah declared, before giving Renesmee a white toothed smile that matched the Beta's perfectly. "Happy Thanksgiving, short stuff."

Renesmee had always been a little intimidated by the Pack's only she-wolf, but Leah tugged one of the little girl's curls teasingly, and Renesmee giggled when Seth attacked another curl at the same time.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Leah," Renesmee said, her voice a little shy as Paul's imprint wandered back over, popping cheese in her mouth and not at all caring that Rosalie was glaring at her.

"Wow," Cassie said to Rosalie, eyeing Rosalie's boots with a lustful expression. "I missed the whole fall line, didn't I? Jacob, look at her boots!"

Jacob was a little busy because Leah had just come back in and shoved something that looked like a boxed turkey fryer into his already filled arms, and Edward smirked at Jacob before sniffing and then walking outside. "Why am I looking at blondie's boots, Cass?" the Alpha asked, distracted, as Cassie grabbed his sleeve, tugging it and almost making him drop his chairs. "I try not to look at ugly more often than I need to."

"Jacob Black, the only ugly ones here are you and your group of mutts!" Rosalie hissed, looking seemingly confused by the fact that Cassie seemed to be stalking her footwear, the imprint ignoring Rose and staring at her feet.

"Collin and Paul aren't here, and you're my Alpha, so telling you about the fabulous choice in designer footwear our host has chosen only seems appropriate, don't you think?" Cassie chirped, bending down and staring at Rosalie's knee. "That is just amazing stitching, isn't it?"

"Ahh, sure Cass. Seth, take some of these, will you?" Jake said, but Seth had disappeared and was dragging a shy looking red haired girl into the house by the hand. Bella gave Jake a look of amusement mixed with exasperation and took some of the chairs, although Renesmee noticed that her mother kept looking outside at something, or maybe someone.

Jake seemed oblivious as Seth threw an arm around the red head's shoulders and beamed at everyone. "Oh, hey, Alice!" Jake called loudly, making the wolves and vampires alike flinch from his bellowing voice.

"_What_, Jacob?" the tiny vampire asked, looking completely frazzled.

Jacob hit her with his most brilliant, most innocent smile. "Where should we start the fryer? Front yard or back?"

It took Alice a moment to realize that he wasn't kidding. "The _what_?"

"The turkey fryer," he said slowly, eyes sparkling mischievously. "You know, the way that the Black family has made all their turkeys since the days of yonder?"

"Jacob Black," Alice hissed, advancing on him furiously. "The day I allow _anyone_ in my home to be subjected to deep fried turkey is the day I'm deep frying your whole Pack!"

"She's been making a lot of power statements lately, Carlisle," Jacob said lazily, ignoring Alice completely as Carlisle raised an eyebrow. Jacob smiled at the coven, and if Renesmee hadn't been squealing from being tickled by Embry at the moment, she would have seen the dangerous gleam in the Alpha's eyes.

Carlisle, however, knew exactly what Jacob was doing, and the oldest vampire sighed. "Point made Jacob, and as a whole we'd like to apologize for any disrespect our coven caused to your…" Carlisle glanced at the red haired human, who was busy staring around and trying to hide against Seth's side. "To your _friend_."

Jacob nodded, looking accepting of that fact, and Alice sighed. "Me too, I'm sorry I offended the…him. _Jack_. But you _can't_ fry a turkey, Jacob, you just can't!"

"Oh, yes I can," Jacob chuckled, ruffling Alice's hair just to annoy her. "Watch me and learn from the master."

Alice was a vampire and couldn't cry, but she could cringe from the loss of culinary control, and so Carlisle chuckled and put an arm around her as she cringed her hardest. "It's not that bad, Alice," Carlisle chuckled. "You aren't eating it, after all."

"Come 'ere, Alice," Jacob grinned, hauling Alice up into his arms and swinging her around as she yelped and hit his shoulders. "If I'm not mad at you for calling me low class, you can't be mad at me for _being_ low class."

"Actually, deep fried foods are all the rage right now," Cassie chirped helpfully. "So are binge diets and yoga pants with the word Bangin' on the bottom."

"Bangin' bottoms?" Rosalie asked suspiciously and Alice, despite her dismay, nodded.

"She's right. I ordered us all a pair last week," Alice admitted, looking thankful that Jacob had set her down. "I ordered myself three, actually."

Jacob smirked at Bella. "Hey Bells, you've been through childbirth," Jacob started to say cheekily. "Is your bottom still-"

Renesmee's mother snapped her teeth and waggled her finger at the Alpha, cutting him off. "Don't you even start, Jake," Bella growled. "And there better not be a pair in that order for Renesmee, Alice," Bella added.

Alice looked at Bella as if this was entirely confusing to her. "But I got Renesmee the pink ones with the bling, Bella. Nessie likes pink." Renesmee nodded because she did like pink, although she liked green even more, and she could live without the bling.

"Pink's in right now too," Cassie agreed, nodding sagely, "Although I'd pass on the Bangin' bottoms bling. She's a little young, don't you think?"

Bella gave Cassie a look that said she was not amused. At least not as amused as she was by Seth telling the red head next to him that he had a bangin' bottom, and watching him get hit for it. Alice disappeared into the kitchen, starting to call everyone she knew in a last ditch effort to obtain more turkeys, as Seth asked Esme if she thought he could pull off bottom bling.

Esme assured him that he could.

Renesmee was happy that everyone was happy with each other, even if they were teasing each other, and she was giggling again because of the expression on her Aunt Rose's face. Cassie was following Rosalie around, making a running commentary about her outfit and utterly ignoring Rose's pointed looks that the imprint should go away. The blonde imprint had been bored and recognized a challenge when she saw one, and she was currently rattling on and on about snake skin versus ostrich skin, and each time Rose tried to shake her off, Cassie followed.

"Emmett," Rosalie looked imploringly at her husband. "Emmett, the human is following me!" But instead of saving her, Emmett was grinning like this was the best thing he had seen in years, and whatever he would have said was covered by a shriek of frustration that came from the kitchen.

"What do you _mean_, no more turkeys?" Alice was wailing into her cellphone in the kitchen. "There _has_ to be! _Eighty-five people_! Yes, believe it or not they just showed up, and we can't just _not_ feed them."

Seth chuckled and hugged the girl at his side tighter. "Someone's about to freak, huh?" he asked, sharing a grin with Jake, who was already eyeing the football game in the other room in a similar fashion to how Cassie was lusting after Rosalie's boots.

"This was really unfair, Jacob," Bella told him, glancing through the open front door again. "You knew she would panic."

"Hmm? No idea what you're talking about Bells."

Esme gave Seth an amused look. "You could have told us you were all coming," Esme chastised Seth lightly, and Seth gave her an innocent grin.

"Sorry," Seth apologized, smiling at her charmingly and not sounding sorry at all. "Hey, Esme, Carlisle, this is Chancy. We're supposed to be mortal enemies but her parents don't celebrate holidays based on the overthrow of conflicting-what was it again, Chance?"

"Conflicting cultural societies," Chancy muttered, and Seth beamed.

"That's right," the Beta smiled. "What she said. Basically Thanksgiving is evil because us big strapping overly trusting Natives were screwed by some scrawny but deviously evil Caucasians, but that's no reason to deny someone turkey. I'm hoping my charity to my mortal enemy leads to a Happy Thanksgiving kiss later tonight. She's cute, isn't she?"

This caused Chancy to go beet red and make a strangled noise, and Embry snickered, bouncing Renesmee absently as if she was a baby. Oblivious, Seth continued his introductions. "Chance, meet Doctor and Mrs. Cullen. That's their daughter-in-law Bella, and Nessie is her and Edward's daughter, you met him outside. The one Cassie is creeping out is Rose, and that's Emmett, her husband. That's Jasper, and his wife Alice is the one making all of the panicky noises in the kitchen. And don't worry, they all know you won't kiss me, we're not even dating, but a guy's gotta try, right?"

"I hate you, Seth," Chancy hissed before giving the vampires an embarrassed smile. "Hello," Chancy said, shyly holding out a small Tupperware dish. "I brought some guacamole…I hope it's not too spicy."

Esme smiled welcomingly and took the dish. "I'm sure it'll be just fine, dear," Esme reassured her, and Carlisle gave Chancy a kind look.

"We're both pleased to meet you," Carlisle added. Chancy turned three darker shades than before, and despite everyone in the room, Renesmee could smell the flush of blood in the girl's cheeks. Jasper made a pained noise and disappeared into the back, but Renesmee was as full of blood as she could be, so she just tucked her nose against Embry's neck. Renesmee knew what that felt like, being shy meeting someone, and she wished that Seth's friend knew that they were all very nice, and of course they would be nice to her.

"We take care of our own, Ness," Embry agreed with her quietly, soft enough the humans couldn't hear, but he gave her a reassuring smile when she lifted her face from his neck. In her excitement, Renesmee hadn't realized that her hand was still on Embry's neck, and he could hear her thoughts because of it. Embry stepped them sideways as Leah walked in again.

The she wolf dropped a giant stuffed turkey on the polished wood floors and gave them all a frustrated look. "Okay, really, why am I the _only_ one unloading things?" Leah growled, and Emily laughed, heading outside to help with Sam at her heels. Kim, however, paused in the doorway.

"Why do you have a giant stuffed turkey, Leah?" Kim asked curiously, and Seth adopted his most snobbish expression.

"The question _should_ be, Kim," Seth said haughtily, "Why would anyone _not_ have a giant stuffed turkey with them on Thanksgiving? The Clearwaters certainly can't be the only ones with the giant stuffed turkey bowl tradition."

"Seth? What's the giant stuffed turkey bowl tradition?" Renesmee asked curiously. She had researched a slew of Thanksgiving traditions, and that one hadn't been on the list. Seth winked at her, snagging Chancy by the belt loop when the redhead tried to escape back outside where there were less attractive people and more normalcy.

The Beta shared a grin with his sister, who had obviously decided she was done working and was attacking the snack table instead. "You'll see, Nessie," Seth promised.

"I wonder if anyone's ever tried to make turkey boots?" Cassie muttered, ignoring the wild eyed and hissing Rosalie, and Emmett let out a devastated sound.

"Damn, that was a touchdown!" Emmett growled, jumping over the back of the couch and yelling at the television screen. "Oh come _on_, defense, what are you _doing_?"

Seth perked up at that and made a beeline past the stuffed turkey and towards the living room. "Oh hey! Emmett, who's ahead?" Chancy blushed apologetically as she was dragged into the living room, the Beta flopping himself down in the nearest easy chair and pulling the red head down on his lap with him.

"Jake? Is that your imprint outside?" Renesmee's mother asked in an odd voice, and Jacob nodded, gesturing absently through the door.

"Yeah, Bells, that's Samantha. Claire's having shoelace issues and is determined to fix them on her own," Jacob chuckled, his eyes brightening as he turned to Embry. "Hey, big bro, you on it?"

"Yup," Embry drawled lazily, seeming amused at her mother's reaction, and he shifted Renesmee higher up on his hip. "Hey, Nessie? Do you want to meet someone?"

"Of course, Embry," Renesmee said politely, and then she giggled as Jacob leaned over and blew a raspberry on her arm. Embry snapped his teeth playfully at his Alpha, as if protecting Renesmee from the evil of Alpha raspberries, but then Renesmee squealed when the older wolf blew a second one right in the middle of her palm.

"Are you feeling any better, Nessie?" Embry asked kindly as he carried her outside, where across the wide drive a dark haired young woman was standing next to an old pickup truck, helping an equally dark haired little girl try to tie her shoes. Renesmee answered silently through her palm, yes she was feeling much better, thank you very much for asking.

Embry's eyes locked onto his girlfriend as they headed outside, and it didn't pass Renesmee's notice that the little girl on the tailgate of the truck looked so much like Samantha that she could have been Samantha and Embry's daughter. That could be Embry's family several years from now, and Renesmee could see the possibility and the hunger for it in Embry's eyes.

Again, her hand gave her thoughts away, and Embry paused mid-step, then gave her a lopsided smile. Embry gave Renesmee a little squeeze and he put his fingers in front of his lips. "Let's keep it our secret, okay Ness?" he whispered conspiratorially. "I still haven't managed to get a ring on her finger yet."

Renesmee nodded, and then snickered when Embry started humming the Mission: Impossible theme. Her giggle caught the pair's attention, and both Samantha and the little girl next to the imprint looked up. The little girl was staring at Renesmee, and Renesmee felt herself suddenly grow really shy. She hadn't met a lot of children, and she figured she looked pretty silly hoisted up in Embry's arms the way she was.

"Nessie? This is Claire," Samantha said kindly, seeing her shy expression. "Claire? This is Nessie. She's our new wolf girl."

"Weally?" Claire said, her eyes growing wide as she precociously hopped off the tailgate. Then the child gave her a wide, gap toothed smile. "Hi! I'm Claire, and Qwil's my wolf but he isn't here, but mommy says it because he works weally hard and daddy says that if Qwil didn't then he would be weally lazy, but Qwil isn't lazy, he's all dat. So is Unca Embry but I'm not supposed to tell him dat. We can be fwiends, because the adults are boring, except for Sims, but she's usually pwaying with Unca Embry. Who's your wolf?"

Renesmee looked at Embry, and he was giving her a wide smile, his eyes flickering behind her shoulder, and that was when Renesmee realized that her wolf was there too. Instead of being in the midst of the crowd inside the house, Jack had remained outside, silent and off to the side. Edward was standing near Jack, face impassive, and Renesmee suddenly knew that was where her father had disappeared to earlier. Kim and Emily watched curiously as they helped Sam unload a few boxes from his truck, but Jack stayed where he was.

When Renesmee looked at Jack, he gave her a tiny smile, and suddenly a new imprint so close to Renesmee's age wasn't half as important as the man standing over there.

Embry caught that thought, and then he set her down on her feet, as if that was exactly how he had expected it to be. Renesmee had the manners to finish her conversation with Claire, so she held out her hand shyly. "It's nice to meet you, Claire," Renesmee said, her voice coming out a tiny little noise, and Claire shook her hand more vigorously than Renesmee would have expected. "Um…my wolf…my wolf is Mister Jack."

"Qwil taught me to shake hands," Claire told her, sounding proud, and suddenly Renesmee felt the confusing desire to tell this little girl all of the things that Renesmee and her wolf had shared and done, but that would be bragging, and bragging was wrong. Plus they hadn't done anything anyways, but Claire was looking at her expectantly, and Renesmee refused to let her wolf be second best to anyone, he deserved better than that.

"Mister Jack…" Renesmee stuttered, but then steeled herself and gave Claire a shy look. "Mister Jack made sure I wasn't thirsty. It was very nice of him."

Claire blinked at that, but then nodded. "Qwil makes me chocolate milk when I'm thirsty, but only two because I get ext…ext…" Claire looked at Samantha for help, and Jacob's imprint chuckled.

"Excited," Samantha supplied, and Claire nodded.

"I get extwited. But Qwil doesn't get mad at me. Does your wolf get mad at you, is that why you call him mister? Qwil never made me call him mister, he's always been Qwil."

Renesmee was at a loss as to what to say, so she ducked her head and scuffed her shoe on the ground, glancing at her wolf for help. He simply watched her, but at her glance for help, his eyes went to Claire and then back again. Then he ducked his head slightly, his lips curving as if he was slightly amused. He had assessed the risk, Renesmee thought in her head, and had decided that she was safe. Renesmee supposed that it was a little silly that she was shy around a human. She could probably eat a polar bear if she wanted to.

Not that she wanted to. Polar bears were much too cute for that.

Her father rolled his eyes a little, but chuckled, shaking his head. Oblivious to Renesmee's thought, Embry ruffled her curls and then patted her on the head. "Nessie? Why don't you go say hi to Jack? Claire, I bet Sims and I can find you some chocolate milk inside. Nessie drinks chocolate milk too."

Yes, she did, although hers usually had blood in it. The little girl looked to her father for permission, and when Edward nodded, Renesmee shuffled forward. She was suddenly deeply, deeply shy, but it helped that most of her family and her Pack were inside. She blushed a deep red and stared at her shoes.

"Hello, Mister Jack," she whispered, and her wolf sank down to his heels. He looked so normal, shorter and slimmer and quieter than the others, and Renesmee wondered why she was so shy. He was her wolf, so she didn't have to be shy around him, right?

"Ayásochid, Renesmee?" Jack asked her quietly, his words soft and spoken for her alone, his low voice so similar to his Packmate's voices, but so much better to her ears. It made her want to run up and throw her arms around him the way she had Jacob, but her father was already looking frustrated.

"Are you really insisting on doing this again?" Edward sighed, but Jack ignored her father, giving Renesmee that small curving of his lips that was the ancient wolf's smile.

Renesmee smiled back and tried to repeat what he had said, although she was pretty sure her pronunciation was wrong. "Ayá… ayásochid, Mister Jack?"

"Ayáso_cha_," Jack murmured, and Renesmee realized that he was correcting her.

She nodded, and then smiled at him prettily. "Ayásocha, Mister Jack?"

"Háchli, ho, Renesmee," he told her, flashing a grin back that made his eyes sparkle at her, and he tapped his finger against his lips to show her his grin. He was happy, and so was she.

Renesmee repeated his words back, testing them out now that she was relatively certain she knew what that meant. "Háchli, ho, Mister Jack." Then for fun she bobbed a little curtsy and added, "Comment allez-vous, monsieur Jack?"

"Très bien, Renesmee, merci," Jack chuckled and Renesmee beamed. Her father looked like he didn't know whether to get angry or to laugh, but then he settled on shaking his head.

"Why am I even surprised?" he asked, sighing. "Of course the wolf that doesn't talk speaks French."

The ancient wolf gave her father a glance, but then returned his attention to her. Renesmee giggled when Jack made a silly face at her, and then she stepped forward and shyly placed her hand on his arm. She was happy that he was here, and she was sorry that she was sick last week, and she was excited she knew what he had said to her today.

Jack waited until she was done, and then he looked pointedly at her father, before taking her little hand in his much larger one. To her surprise, he very gently but very deliberately took her hand off of his arm and broke the skin contact. It hurt her feelings, hurt her to the quick, but before that hurt could manifest itself in tears or thoughts of why he wouldn't want to touch her, her wolf slipped down to his knees and shifted closer to her. Like this they were still not touching, but he gave her another encouraging smile.

"_Ayásochid_, Renesmee?" Jack repeated quietly, and Renesmee instinctively reached out her hand, because it was easier that way. Then she caught his glance at her hand, and she closed her fingers into her palm.

"I'm happy…" she said shyly, because she was, even though it was hard to express. She went as red as the girl Seth had brought with him, but then pushed on. "I'm happy you came to see me, Mister Jack." She was other things too, but she was too embarrassed to say them

Jack nodded, and then he briefly pressed his thumb into her palm, tapping it once. She looked down at her hand in his, and he tapped her palm pointedly again with his thumb before letting her go. Renesmee's wolf stood up under the scrutiny of her father, who was watching Jack with unfathomable eyes.

"You picked up on that fast," Edward said quietly and Jack gave him the slightest of nods.

"She is my imprint," Jack said simply. "It is my place to know her ways, Edward Cullen. It is her right to know mine."

Edward frowned at that but didn't say anything more, and Renesmee thought about her wolf's words, even as she looked at her palm. Why had he tapped it? What did that mean? So she thought about it, even as her father took her hand and led her back inside to the rest of the group, and she made sure to hold onto her father with her left hand as she considered her right.

Inside, the house had exploded into chaos, mostly because poor Aunt Alice was still having a very hard time processing the fact that they would be deep frying turkeys in her back yard, and poor Uncle Jasper hadn't expected and wasn't handling the presence of Chancy Hoblin very well. Rosalie was hitting the roof because Cassie had decided that there wasn't enough room in the living room anymore, and she was seated cheerfully on Emmett's knee, and Emmett couldn't care less as long as long as no one got between him and the football game. But unfortunately Jacob had decided that Rosalie should be on _his_ knee, and there was nothing that Rosalie could do about it that was very drastic without letting the human in their midst find out that there actually were vampires and massive wolves designed to kill, or at least restrain them.

Kim was openly laughing at Rosalie's anger, Carlisle was trying to politely and discreetly convince Emmett that he should remove the human from his personage, and Esme was unable to shake the Claire-bear that had latched onto Esme's leg. Charlie had to work that day, but had stopped by on his break, and after one look inside the house, Charlie began laughing and turned right back around. Bella had to leave with her father to go get more turkeys, Alice muttering to Bella that the wolves wouldn't know the difference between large chickens and turkeys and to just go with it. The cheese cubes had been demolished, and Cassie had singlehandedly worked her way through two-hundred dollars of caviar and toast, cheerfully telling anyone who would listen exactly how much better Paul would look in a football uniform than any of the professional players.

It was a far cry from the beautiful, elegant, perfectly planned event that Alice had worked so hard on. When the first turkey (which was actually a chicken) caught their lawn on fire, then Emmett caught on fire trying to put it out, having been dared to by Seth and Jacob. It was then that they all learned that Chancy Hoblin might be scared to be around so many attractive people, but she was a champ at 'Stop, Drop, And Roll'.

Sometime around the point that Chancy had done a full on running leap and had attacked a burning vampire with her jacket, Rico wandered up into the yard, spitting once before tipping his hat at Renesmee, where she still held her father's hand and contemplated her other one with Jack a few paces back and off to the side.

"Hey there, little lady," Rico drawled lazily, lifting his hat and giving her a wink with golden eyes. "Cullen, Jackie boy."

"You're late," Jack murmured, the first words she had heard him say since he had spoken to her father. Rico took a look at the now slightly singed Emmett getting fused over by the coven, Rosalie screaming that they were all evil and kicking anyone within range of her fabulous boots, and Alice was wailing by an overturned turkey fryer, and then suddenly he began to laugh.

"Only by about two weeks, that ain't so bad, Jackie. Looks like I'm right on time for the good part, anyways," Rico grinned. "Hey, Renesmee? Wanna go get your Uncle Rico a beer?"

Edward gave the other vampire a look of absolute horror, but Renesmee smiled brightly. "Of course, Mister Rico. Mister Jack? Would you like a beer?" Her wolf shook his head, and when she went to move towards the house, Jack shifted ever so slightly in her way. Renesmee stopped, a little confused, and Edward shook his head no.

"Aww, you're no fun, Jackie boy," Rico declared dramatically. Then, faster than even her father could stop him, Rico had snagged her up into his arms. "Now, little lady, I hear my best friend Jackie is _your_ new best friend too."

Edward stiffened and stared at Rico challengingly, but Jack just smiled slightly and reached over, plucking Rico's hat off and setting it down on Renesmee's head. Renesmee giggled, her eyes suddenly covered by the hat and leaving her in darkness.

"Yes, sir," Renesmee said, and because her eyes were covered she never saw Jacob glace in alarm at Rico and Jack shake his head once, enough to convince Jacob that it was okay. Rico could be trusted, at least with Jack at his side. When Jacob relaxed, Edward relaxed, but he still wasn't happy that Rico was there, or that Rico was holding his daughter. All Renesmee saw was a cowboy hat. She pushed it up over her eyes and smiled at Rico.

"At least, I hope that Mister Jack wants to be my new friend," Renesmee added, glancing shyly at Jack, and the turning of her head made the cowboy hat fall over her eyes again.

"Well I think that Old Man Mister Jack could use a lot more friends, although that lot seems to be a rowdy bunch," Rico chuckled.

"Rowdy? Not us, Rico," Seth chuckled, his arms draped loosely around Leah and Samantha's shoulders, both girls grinning. "All we did was show up unannounced, eat their food, and set Emmett on fire. That's pretty tame for us."

"Who invited Tex to the party?" Leah teased, wandering over and giving Rico a grin. "Sorry, Rico, this is a family only affair."

"Hey, Jackie boy and I are family," Rico declared, absently passing Renesmee to Jack. Jack seemed startled, and Renesmee couldn't figure out how not to touch him with her palms, so Jack set her down on her feet next to her father. Out in the yard, Claire was playing with Embry, having a snowball fight, and Renesmee watched a little enviously. She looked at her wolf, and then decided that she'd stay where she was. She had only been able to be around her wolf a couple times, and it would be rude to leave him now.

Edward rested his hand on his daughter's now cowboy hat covered head. "I think that Jack won't mind, Nessie," her father told her with a smile. "Go play, honey."

Renesmee nodded, and then took a step forward. Mid-step, the little girl paused. She had never played with a human before, with the exception of her Grandpa Charlie. And she had been having a lot of…accidents lately. Renesmee might be the imprint of the most submissive wolf in the Pack, but she was not the weakest imprint. She could kill any of the other imprints faster than they could defend themselves. And Claire was young…

The little girl stopped, and then she shuffled backwards. "Thank you, but no thank you, Daddy," Renesmee whispered. Her voice was sad, and it pulled the attention of everyone there. Her Aunts gave her sympathetic looks, and Bella started to walk over, but Embry had whispered something to Claire. Quil's imprint nodded and went running through the snow, a fist sized snowball clutched to her chest. Claire paused in front of Renesmee and gave Edward her most appealing smile.

"Mister Cuwwen? Can Nessie pway too?"

Edward was a vampire, with all the strength and viciousness that went along with it, but he melted like an ice cube under that gap toothed grin. "Of course, Claire," Edward said with a smile, putting a reassuring hand on Renesmee's shoulder. "Nessie, honey, you can go play. Everything will be fine." Meaning that her father would make sure that everything stayed okay. Over Claire's shoulder, Embry nodded reassuringly.

Giggling, Claire took her snowball and very gently touched it to Renesmee's nose, leaving a bit of white snow on the very tip. "Tag, you're it!" Claire declared, before spinning and running away.

Unable to stop herself, Renesmee ran afterwards, but not because of the reason everyone thought. It was instinct that made her take the first step, instinct to hunt that which ran from her, and Jack had her snagged about the waist before she could even finish the step. Her wolf was so _fast_. Jack had stopped her and had his hand over her eyes so quickly, breaking the predator to prey viewpoint, snapping her out of it. And then he let her go, because Renesmee had realized what she had done.

There would be no playing for her today.

The little girl tried so hard not to cry, but she knew what she could and couldn't do. Chasing Claire was on the list of things she couldn't do and she was dreadfully disappointed.

"Poor kid," Rico muttered, sharing a glance with Jack, and Renesmee didn't notice the fact that her wolf was giving her parents a look of flat dislike. Edward made a soothing noise and went to pick her up, but Jacob's cheerful voice cut that off.

"Hey Emb, let's make this fun, huh?" Jacob declared, striding over to where Renesmee stood in her cowboy hat, sniffling. "Come on, Nessie, let's take these two down." The Alpha swung her up to his shoulders, Embry doing the same to a giggling Claire, and after Renesmee had wiped her eyes, so started the Great Thanksgiving Snowball Massacre, the first of its kind in the Cullen household.

It started out playful enough, the little girls lobbing snowballs at each other as Embry and Jake dodged and ran around the yard. However, Claire decided her Aunt Emily wanted in on the fun, Seth decided that so did Chancy, so Sam and Seth ended up running the two females around on their shoulders. It stayed fun and games when Edward and Bella and Emmett and Rosalie joined in, but became fierce when Leah grabbed up a laughing Samantha and the two females destroyed them all. Apparently Snowball Massacres greatly resemble Clearwater family giant stuffed turkey bowls, and in the end, the turkey was wrestled and won by the ultimate pair available for giant stuffed turkey bowl victory: Carlisle and Esme Cullen.

No one noticed Kim and Cassie trying to fry another turkey (they had no clue it was a chicken) when no one was looking, and so the second fire didn't get put out as quickly as the first. Minor burns aside, it actually turned out better than anyone would have thought.

There was a lot of shifting around the dining room table, mostly caused by the fact that Rico kept trying to sit next to a squeaking and red faced Chancy, Seth kept trying to sit between Rico and Chancy, Samantha kept trying to sit as far away from Rico as she could, and Jacob found distinct amusement in sitting between Edward and his family. Jasper tried to come back in again, but Rico told Chancy she had nice legs and Cassie added that Chancy had a bangin' bottom, and while Seth growled and Leah howled, Jasper had to leave again from the amount of blushing the poor girl was doing.

Leah didn't care who she sat next to, as long as it wasn't the salad, and Rosalie gave up and changed shoes, just so that Cassie would leave her alone. Seeming disappointed, Cassie and Kim sat quietly in their corner of the table, Kim sadly adding extra gravy to her food and Cassie drawing smiley faces in her mashed potatoes and mumbling about Paul liking foods that were red more than foods that were white. Jake could only handle that for so long before he gave up torturing Edward and plopped down in between the two mate-less imprints instead, doing his best to slather them mercilessly with affection. It made Renesmee smile. She liked that her Alpha loved them all.

If Claire missed Quil, she didn't say anything about it. She was more excited about telling everyone all the pictures she had drawn of her and Quil, and how bestest of an artist she would be when he came home, and he better bring her a surprise. Oh, and her mommy said no vampires during Thanksgiving away with Uncle Sam and Aunt Emily, or no more Thanksgivings at all.

Rico and Jack seemed to be the only ones that found that incredibly amusing, and Renesmee was starting to wonder if age gave someone an interesting sense of humor. After all, Mister Rico and Mister Jack were at least twice as old as them all.

It was somewhere around the pumpkin pie when Rico looked at Chancy and then grinned. "Ya know, I always did like redheads," Rico said with a chuckle, shooting the girl at Seth's side a sexy smile, his eyes wandering over the shocked Chancy's form. "Wanna get out of here? I'm pretty sure whatever the pup over there has, I can double it for you."

Chancy's eyes got wide, and she coughed. "I'm sorry?"

Seth's fork snapped in half, and even though he had a full quarter of a Seth Clearwater pumpkin pie wedged in his mouth, he still managed to give Rico a dangerous, pumpkiny look. "_What_ did you just say to her?" he mumbled around his food, as the Alpha's imprint lost her usual cool.

"Run, Chancy!" Samantha hissed, looking a little wild around the eyes. "Run _now_! Embry, _save her_!"

Embry looked up from his pie, a little confused. "Huh? What am I doing?"

"You're eighteen, aren't you honey?" Rico asked, winking at her as he hit Chancy with the vampire attraction whammy. Renesmee giggled as Chancy's eyes grew a little unfocused, her mouth growing slack, and Seth suddenly clamped a hand over the redhead's eyes.

"_Quit it_, leech," Seth snarled, half rising as Leah began to steal Seth's pie and Embry realized what Samantha had been talking about.

"Oh, save her from _that_. Now I gotcha," Embry nodded, seeming pleased he understood the love of his life, even as he kept eating his pie. Samantha stared at him as if betrayed.

"_Make me_, pup," Rico drawled challengingly, and then Chancy yelped as someone may or may not have started to play footsie with her with a cowboy boot.

Embry swallowed and gave Samantha a reassuring look. "She'll be fine, Sims. Could you hand me the butter, sweetheart?" Samantha made an angry eeping noise, Embry got the butter none too gently dropped in his lap, and the Alpha's imprint made a grab for her friend right about the time Rico made a grab for her friend and ended up getting himself punched in the face across the table by the Beta.

Jack, who had been silent the entire meal, calmly picked a vampire tooth out of his turkey and continued eating his dinner complacently.

"Run away, Chancy, he'll do bad things to you!" Samantha insisted, the still whammied Chancy making a mumbling noise as she was dragged towards the living room by said imprint.

"Now this is getting' fun," Rico decided with a grin as he spat out another tooth. The vampire hopped the table, making a yippie kiyay noise as he tackled Seth.

"They're ruining Thanksgiving!" Alice wailed, and Jacob patted her on the head, even as Emmett grinned and jumped to his feet. The burly vampire shoved both cowboy and Beta out the front door, his wife watching with interest.

"You know, on the off chance that Seth actually wins, I'm going to go watch," Rosalie decided, standing up.

Chancy could be heard arguing in the living room with Samantha even as Rico whooped outside. "Wait, two hot guys are fighting over me? _Seriously_? Sims, let go. Let go, I wanna see!"

"No, he's evil!"

"He's hot! I don't care if he's evil! It's not like I'm dating Seth, or even sporking Seth, so let me _see_!"

Renesmee shifted uncomfortably, although she was used to the wolves and the vampires wrestling and fighting and so this was nothing new or to be alarmed about. However she was a bit confused. "Mommy? What does sporking mean in reference to Seth and Chancy and their interpersonal relationship?"

It was about this time that Brady and Collin wandered in, and Collin gave Renesmee a huge grin. "You see, Nessie, when a guy fork and a girl spoon like each other a whole lot, sometime they-"

"_Have dinner_," Sam cut Collin off immediately with a warning look as Kim snickered. "Did you two idiots seriously leave the border unguarded?"

"Naw, Jasper is running it for the next three minutes, until shift change. He said we're gonna miss out on food if we didn't get over here," Brady said, making a beeline for Kim, and the imprint grinned widely at Brady as the wolf went behind her and hugged her around the neck.

"Dinner? Is that what they're calling it these days?" Emily giggled, throwing Sam a knowing look. "Have you had enough dinner, Sam?"

Claire sat up in her seat, no longer focusing on her ice cream with chocolate chips. "Aunt Emily? Unca Sam already had dinner. See?" She pointed at Sam's plate, which was in fact dinner free. "He doesn't want any more dinner."

Renesmee tried to think of a polite way to suggest that they had possibly misunderstood the intent of her question, Edward buried his head in his hands and declared his head hurt, and Bella would have shielded him, but she was too busy watching Jacob as he burst out laughing.

Embry finished his pie, snickering, "Sucks to be Sam."

Jake howled and pointed at the living room, where Samantha was fighting a losing battle to keep Chancy out from the yard, where the sounds of cursing and Rosalie whooping were resounding. "Dude, sucks to be _you_! Do you have any clue how _pissed_ she is right now?"

Embry blinked, then groaned as Samantha shot him a 'Look'. "Well, that's my cue to go run patrol," Embry mumbled, mouthing he was sorry to his girlfriend. Samantha had followed Chancy out of the living room, grabbing the redhead around the waist and dragging her back in again. As she passed Embry, Samantha rolled her eyes at him and mouthed the word 'traitor'.

"Ahh, yes," Embry decided wisely. "Definitely time to go. Leah?"

"Yeah, I'm coming too," Leah muttered, finishing Seth's pie. "Hey, Samantha! Just throw Chancy in there and let the three have their fun."

"Not funny, Leah!" Samantha called back. "Oww! Chancy, they _aren't_ that hot! Scratch me again and I'm knocking your ass out!"

"I wanna _seeeeeeee_!"

"_No_!"

Leah snickered and grinned at the table. "You don't keep a girl from being molested once by a vampire and she never forgives you…" Leah sighed in mock sadness before jumping up and flinging her arm around Embry's shoulders. "Okay, Happy Thanksgiving and all that stuff." The she-wolf gave a little wave and the pair trotted out, Embry snickering at Chancy's curses directed Samantha's way.

Upon seeing Collin, Cassie had jumped up and flung herself at him happily, earning herself a bear hug in return. Having been sufficiently squished, Cassie handed him the plate she had made and saved for him, and Kim did the same for Brady, although Collin's was all about desserts and Brady's consisted mostly of a massive pile of stuffing covered in gravy. Both pups sighed happily and dug in, Cassie looking so much happier now that Collin was here. It had never occurred to Renesmee that Cassie looked unhappy, but the difference was amazing, the little blonde seemed to light up once Collin was in the room. She also stopped her constant talking, instead just leaning her cheek against Collin's shoulder as the young wolf ate.

Seeing that made Renesmee think about Jake, and how she was always happier when Jake was around, and she glanced at her Alpha. Jake caught her looking and gave her a gentle smile, his gaze full of affection as he kept one eye on the fight outside and one eye over the rest of his Pack. Seth was calling Rico a redhead stealer, and Rico was calling Seth a lily livered something that Renesmee missed, but the little girl was more interested in her ice cream and chocolate chips dessert. Claire had ice cream too, and Renesmee giggled when she saw Claire trying to balance a chocolate chip on her nose.

No one was watching so Renesmee did the same, only hers promptly fell off and into her glass of water. Realizing that if there was chocolate in her glass, Captain Nessie O'Nessie would be rightly accused of wrongdoing, Renesmee tried to figure out a way to get it out without anyone seeing.

It probably took her wolf multiple tries to get her attention, but eventually she realized that Jack was watching and had ducked his head in just a way to try and draw her notice. When she looked at him, the ancient wolf very subtly tapped his straw, and then took a drink of his own water. Renesmee's eyes brightened and she reached for her glass.

"Renesmee? Did you finish all of your-" Bella started to say, looking her way, but suddenly Jack made a grunting, coughing noise that drew everyone's attention. It was in stark contrast to how he normally was, so quiet and unassuming.

"Alpha, may I break up the fight?" Jack asked politely. "Your imprint seems to be growing distressed."

Jake chuckled at that and nodded. "Yeah, just don't get your nose bitten off."

Bella turned back to Renesmee, who was secretly holding a cold chocolate chip in her palm, the chip having been saved from drowning by an aptly wielded straw and a clever diversion from her accomplice.

_Her_ accomplice. _Her_ wolf.

"May I come too?" Renesmee asked, even though she knew it was completely inappropriate, but she felt like she had barely been able to spend time with her wolf so far. There were just too many people around. She tried to be secretive as she showed him the rescued chocolate chip by way of eating it, and Jack gave her an amused look, sitting back down.

"Did he just tell her no before I could?" Bella asked, sounding a bit miffed, and Jake chuckled.

"It was a daring rescue, Bells, and Jack has done his part," the Alpha teased, winking at Renesmee, who blushed but giggled. "Don't worry, the day has been saved."

Alice and Esme exchanged confused glances, and Carlisle actually laughed. "I think you three have lost us all. But is Seth okay?"

"Our Beta is competent," Jack murmured. "Rico isn't really trying to kill him. When he sees redheads, Rico is simple overly…"

"Extwited?" Claire provided helpfully and Collin snorted, spraying pumpkin pie all over the table, including Edward Cullen and his wife. Claire burst into childlike laughter, and then Cassie did too, and Collin smirked as if he didn't feel bad at all.

Jack bowed his head demurely. "Yes, Claire," Jack murmured quietly, once more returning to his pie. There was a crash outside, followed by a crash in the living room, and two girls both yelling at each other and threatening withholdance of candy in drastic amounts.

"Just let her go, Sims," Sam called out in his gruff voice, apparently his manners getting the best of him as he cringed at the destruction of vampire personal property. "Seth won't let Rico eat her."

"Your opinion does not and has not _ever_ mattered, Sam!" Samantha growled, and instead of getting mad, Emily barked out a laugh mid bite of pie.

Sam gave her an incredulous look, "Seriously?" he asked, looking offended, and Emily blushed, trying to cover her mouth.

"Opps?" Emily said hopefully, and Claire started giggling even more.

"Aunt Emily's in twouble," she sing-songed, eating her ice cream happily. "She's in big twouble, bigger biggest twouble..."

Renesmee snickered and under her breath she muttered, "Double double toil and trouble, Mister Sam's about to bubble…"

She didn't know where it came from, Renesmee was much too well behaved to make fun of an adult, but her Alpha threw his head back and guffawed about the same time that Bella began scolding her. Emily took one look at Sam's incredulous expression and began howling, Rico let out a cowboy whoop that made the adults all wonder if they were even fighting outside at all, and Chancy broke loose, making a mad dash for the front door.

The bad thing was that Chancy ran headfirst into a half-naked Seth, one who looked annoyed and bruised up, his shirt shredded in the yard. The good thing was that when Chancy feinted dead away from being face smooshed into Clearwater pectorals, the giant stuffed turkey broke her fall. All in all things could have been worse.

Rosalie walked in, looking amused as Rico and Emmett followed her. "I think that one's not going to last around here very long," Rosalie smirked, strutting past Chancy, who was a new shade of purple as Seth helped her off the floor and the stuffed turkey.

Cassie sighed and rolled up her sleeves. "Okay, I hate to have to do this, but I'm pretty sure that I have no choice. Rosalie? It's time for our death match. Chancy's not Pack, but I'm bored, so let's do this. On the count of three. One…"

Rosalie stared at Cassie in shock as the little imprint stood up and stretched her tiny bicep muscles. "You've gotta be shitting me," Rosalie muttered to a wide eyed Emmett.

"Two…" Cassie said, giving Rosalie a pretty smile as Emmett started to back away towards Carlisle.

"Is Cass really going to attack her?" Kim asked Brady, who finished his dressing with gravy and shrugged.

"How should I know?" Brady muttered, sounding bored. "Paul said she's kind of a loose cannon. But Collin's gonna be in deep shit if she gets eaten."

"Thr-" Cassie opened her mouth just as Rosalie rolled up her own sleeves and decided that yes, a death match was quite fine with her, causing Collin to swallow his last bit of pumpkin pie and hop to his feet.

"Okay," Collin declared cheerfully, "I think this means Cassie needs to go home. Our attack imprint only gets this feisty when she's had too many baked goods or needs a nap."

"But Collin!" Cassie gave the young wolf her saddest look. "I just challenged her. We can't leave now, it would be rude."

"Cass, challenging her to a death match _is_ rude," Collin chuckled, and Cassie blinked.

"Really? It wasn't in my country," Cassie said, not sounding convinced, and Collin snickered. Cassie yelped as Collin flipped her over his shoulder, the young wolf giving the group a wave.

Brady laughed and stood up as well. "Thanks for the food," he said politely, but he took one look at the assembled vampires and shuddered a little. "Come on Kim, Jared and Paul said they'd call the house in twenty, and we're supposed to be at your parents' place in an hour."

Kim brightened at that and said her goodbyes, taking her deviled egg trays and the remains of Cassie's attempts at cooking, and leaving with Brady. The young wolf didn't seem to mind at all the friendly arm Kim had around his waist, and even though Renesmee hadn't talked to either of them much, both Collin and Brady gave her twin winks before they headed out of the door.

Renesmee thought about the fact that her fellow imprints must be really lonely with their wolves gone for the holidays, and how nice it was that their wolves had left them Collin and Brady to keep them company. Renesmee was brand new to having a wolf, and hers didn't say nearly as much as Jared usually did, but it was still nice to have him there. It was nice to feel a part of them, her Pack, and as if he could read her mind as completely as her father could, Jack's lips curved into another small smile.

As Seth pulled Chancy up to her feet, she muttered something about the holidays being more interesting when Seth was around, Chancy's family almost never got half naked with cowboys. Rico, who had regained his seat by Jack, just smirked and turned his eyes Samantha's way.

Samantha had no problems hiding under the table near Jake's legs. Sometimes hiding behind the Alpha was the safest place to be.

Another round of dessert and most of a football game later, Emily was yawning into Sam's shoulder, blinking sleepily. Chancy saw and yawned herself, and Seth told them regretfully that he had to get Chancy home. Rico insisted on walking Chancy and Seth to Seth's car, nearly earning the cowboy another Beta sized fist in the face. The rest of the Pack began to trickle out, leaving Jake and Jack, and oddly enough Samantha. She didn't tell anyone why she was staying, although instead of joining Bella and Jake in the sitting room, where Renesmee was getting ready to recite a poem, she had helped Esme and Carlisle clean the kitchen and dining room before curling up on the couch and watching the next football game alone.

Alice and Rosalie had disappeared with their husbands, because they had about as much Pack as they could take for the day. When Rico came back in and pretended to take a nap on the couch, Samantha ignored him, lost in her own thoughts, although Renesmee thought that Jacob's imprint looked more comfortable when Esme and Edward joined her. But then it was time to recite her poem, and Renesmee stopped paying attention to her family and focused instead on her words.

It was a long poem. Her wolf stayed awake the entire time.

Not only did he stay awake, he actually paid attention, although by his silence and motionlessness, one might believe otherwise. But Renesmee could see it, because when she spoke of the sun rising and chasing the moon from the sky, his eyes changed. They narrowed slightly, not in anger but in thought, as if he believed that it was otherwise.

When she spoke of the rain meeting the rivers, both joining to carve the land as they chose, his heartbeat slowed to her vampire enhanced hearing, although she did not know what that meant to him.

When she spoke of the ocean, growing vast and powerful, he turned his head and gazed at the wall, sight unseeing. And when she spoke of the small cedar wood boats upon that ocean, carefully constructed so that the only water in the vessels were the tears of the hungry as the fish did not come, he turned his eyes back to her.

He listened and he watched her as she spoke of thirst, of the endless water surrounding them and nothing to quench their throats as they stayed and hunted that which would not come. And when her poem was done, the moon sliding back into the sky as the hungry thirsty warrior thanked the world for all that he was given and all that he had yet to receive, Renesmee closed the book carefully and waited for his reaction.

Jack watched her face, as if looking for something, and then he exhaled, looking down at his lap, his shoulders drooping slightly.

"Did you like the poem, Mister Jack?" Renesmee asked after a long moment of silence, and when he looked back up at her, she could see a resolution in his eyes. He spoke softly in Quileute, more words that she couldn't understand, and Jake chuckled from his corner of the room.

"Nessie? Think about what you read, honey," Jake told her gently. "What did it mean to you?" Jack gave her an encouraging smile, even though she could see that he was distressed by something.

So she thought about it, thought about the rotation of the earth and the cycles of the sun and the moon. She thought about the erosion of the soil, of melting glaciers at the end of the previous ice age that raised ocean levels, of slight temperature changes in the ocean and the atmosphere that caused droughts and flooding where previously it had never occurred. She thought of the improvements in material science, of lightweight fiberglass shells on speedboats, and sonar to find schools of fish so that no one had to cry if they were hungry.

She thought of being hungry, or thirsty really, and Renesmee's fingers drifted to her throat momentarily. Then she dropped her fingers and this time she looked away. When Renesmee looked back, Jack was watching her. His lips curved into the smallest of smiles, his own fingertips touching his stomach just as briefly as hers had touched her throat, and despite the fact that she hadn't understood a single word he had spoken, a brief moment of understanding passed between them. Hunger was bad, thirst was bad. They both had lived through one of the same kinds of things.

It was a staggering moment for Renesmee, a little girl who so very much wanted to relate to the people around her. Jacob was still waiting for her reaction, and didn't seem to realize that she and Jack had already come to their own conclusions. So the Alpha blinked in surprise when she turned to Jack and asked politely, "Mister Jack? Would you like to read the next one with me?"

From her corner in the room, Bella frowned. "Renesmee, dear, please answer Jacob's question."

Renesmee for a moment was confused, she had thought she already had, and then Jacob laughed. "And so it starts," Jacob chuckled, settling down in his chair and yawning. "No worries, Bells. Heya, Nessie? Just so you know, Jack can't read."

For a long time Renesmee stood, completely floored. Bella made a little noise of sympathy in her throat which seemed to amuse the ancient wolf that had imprinted on her. Then Renesmee nodded and excused herself, going upstairs and putting her poetry book away. She came back down a few minutes later with a large thin picture book in her hands, one that she hadn't picked up since she was four months old. She ignored her mother's look of concern as she settled down on the couch next to Jack and opened the book up on her lap. It was huge, and she gave him a hopeful smile.

"Mister Jack? Would you like to find Waldo with me?"

She really shouldn't have asked. Of course he did.

* * *

A couple hours later, the old wolf and the old vampire were gone and the little girl in an oversized old cowboy hat was sleeping in her bed, her Alpha sitting on the back porch and humming contentedly below her window. Jake may have been relaxing and watching the sunset, or he may have been lingering protectively, listening to his newest little imprint breathing as she slept. Either way Jake didn't look up when Samantha wandered over to him, still gnawing on a chicken (they knew it was chicken, because Alphas were clever like that) leg.

"This is really good, you know?" she decided, plopping down next to him, and Jake gave her a lazy grin.

"You're gonna get fat if you don't stop eating," he told her, and Samantha smirked around her bone.

"If I do, it'll be your fault," Samantha informed him with a chuckle. "Do you think it may have been a little mean all of us showing up like that? I think Alice almost had an aneurism."

Jake snickered and tried to snag a bit of chicken off of her chicken leg, and Samantha ducked away, guarding her kill protectively. "Naw, she had it coming," Jake chuckled. "They treated Jack like dirt, you know. It kinda pissed me off."

Samantha nodded, and then she stripped off the side chunk of dark meat and dangled it in front of Jake's face. "Okay, Alpha wolf. I have something I need to talk to you about, and I'm willing to offer meat as an incentive for you to listen without getting mad."

He gave the meat and her both a curious look, and then Jake raised an eyebrow. "I just have to _listen_ without getting mad? Nothing else required of me, Alpha wolf's imprint?"

"That's it." Samantha waggled the meat enticingly in front of him, and Jake shrugged, plucking the chicken leg out of her other hand and leaving her with the strip of meat. He grinned at her when she made a sad noise, and the Alpha made a show of gnawing the bone happily.

"Okay, shoot. What am I not getting mad about?" Jake asked easily, but Samantha could see him watching her out of the corner of his eye. They rarely searched each other out or talked to each other alone, it was easier on them both that way, and her breaking that habit made him a little wary.

Samantha took a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks as she exhaled slowly. "Okay, here's the thing. I'm not so sure that the Council are doing their job." Jake paused mid chew, but then nodded his head to show he was listening, so she continued. "I think maybe they are taking care of the Pack to the detriment of the rest of the tribe."

"Define 'detriment'," Jake drawled, and Samantha grimaced. This was the harder part.

"Well, I just think that there are other things in the tribe that take precedence over some of the Pack's expenses," Samantha said slowly. "Isn't there a way to balance them better? Because some of the talk around the rez is pretty valid. I know that the world won't end if the roads don't get repaved soon, but the lack of health care…that's pretty scary for people, Jake. It's not that I don't appreciate the fact that the Pack has a safety net, and I'm not saying that it isn't earned a thousand times over, but they don't know that. The tribe…they're worried."

The Alpha was silent for a while, and then he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "It's not that simple, Samantha," Jake told her. "People don't understand how much some of that stuff costs. I'd like to say that we could cut patrols so that the guys and Leah would have more time to work, but the truth is that this is as bare bones as we can get. The last time I kept two on patrol for any length of time, you and Claire almost got killed. And less than a tenth of the budget goes to Pack related things anyways, apple girl. You're not saying anything that Billy doesn't already know. The money just isn't there."

"Where is the other ninety percent going then?" Samantha asked, frowning and Jake gave her a sad look.

"The elderly, mostly. The rez is shrinking, the younger of us are leaving to find better work, and a lot of grandfathers and grandmothers have been forgotten. Do you know how many of our tribe are in hospice care? It's not cheap, Samantha, but we're Quileute. We take care of our own, even when others of our tribe forget that fact. What's left goes to the school, scholarships and free tutoring. Not everyone volunteers for that stuff, you know. Money goes into keeping the beaches cleaned, paying for Forks emergency response support, like fire trucks and ambulances. And then cultural programs…things that I guess we could cut, but if it comes to that, what's the point anymore? If we take away our heritage, we lose thousands of years of what made us Kwòlíyoť."

Samantha smiled a little at that last statement. "You sound like Jack," Samantha said and Jake chuckled.

"Gotta give the guy credit, he knows who we are, better than any of us do. But I understand what you're saying, Samantha. I just don't have an answer for you."

The dark haired young woman sat there quietly, mulling over his words, and then she looked over at him. "I don't think that's good enough, Jacob Black." Jake looked over at her and then the Alpha chucked her chicken leg, the bone disappearing into the trees.

"You and me both, Samantha Carter," Jake said simply, leaning back on his elbows. "You and me both."

* * *

"Knock knock."

Dr. Misty Foster jerked her head off the desk and blinked sleepily before giving the blonde doctor in front of her a sheepish smile. "Sorry, Carlisle. They kept finding me in my office, so I hid out in yours. Your chair is comfy and it spins. Mine doesn't spin."

Carlisle chuckled and made a show of closing and locking his office door behind him, while Misty grinned up at him, her eyes almond shaped from her tiredness. "Nessie likes to spin on it too," Carlisle told her, walking over to his desk and handing her a tin foil covered container. "Happy Thanksgiving, Misty. Esme wanted you to have this. I would have brought more, but we had more guests this year than normal and the after dinner pickings were slim."

"Ooh, Esme cooking. I'm going to steal your wife from you one of these days, Dr. Cullen," Misty promised, peeling back a corner of the foil and inhaling deeply. "Turkey is the most glorious thing invented, isn't it?"

The older doctor smiled at that, and then patted her hand where it rested on the desk. "Go home, Misty. It's Thanksgiving, and there's football on. You don't need to be here."

Misty considered that, then hit her mentor with a white toothed grin. "You had me at 'go', Carlisle, but the football was a nice touch," she decided, standing up and yawning. "Can you tell Esme thanks for me? I'd call, but you know, holiday and families and all."

Carlisle nodded, taking her place in his office chair. "Of course, Misty. I'll see you here tomorrow."

"No rest for the wicked, huh?" she chuckled before turning and giving him a curious look. "By the way, when I prepared that blood film for you the other day, I glanced at the other ones you had. I wasn't aware you were treating a patient with leukocytosis. In that last film, I don't think I've _ever_ seen a white blood cell count that high."

Her mentor was quiet for a moment and then went very still, more still than most people could hold themselves to. "I took that blood from Renesmee last week, when she was sick. The other slides, the two that are more normal, are hers as well, from several weeks prior to her illness and also a couple days ago. She's back to her normal levels now."

Misty frowned, looking much more alert. "Carlisle, that's a _very_ dramatic increase and decrease in levels in such a short time. That's not good. What could her body possibly be fighting that it would spike that high and be back to normal so fast? I know she ages quickly, but I assumed she had a mild form of progeria. But this…"

"I don't know, Misty," Carlisle sighed, "But I'm working on it. I won't let anything happen to my only granddaughter."

The female doctor nodded, and then she leaned over, hugging her mentor briefly. "Okay. Let me know if you find anything out, or if there's anything I can do. Happy Thanksgiving, Carlisle."

With that, Dr. Misty Foster left, hugging her food with a thoughtful expression on her face. Carlisle briefly wondered at the wisdom of putting Misty on Renesmee's case, because that's exactly what he had just done. The female doctor simply couldn't resist a mystery, or a challenge. But if time had taught him anything, Carlisle knew that his protégé was better at finding things he was missing than anyone he had ever known. And Carlisle was missing something, something very important. It was worth the risk.

The leader of the Cullen coven allowed himself a single spin round in his chair, and then with a smile, he went back to work.


	10. Chapter 8

A/N So for as much as I hated the last chapter, I really like this one. :D Hopefully it will be worth the wait. _Hìtkwotalítali_ means "heartsick", the concepts of _Things-With-A-Spirit_ and _Thunderbird_ are Quileute legend, and the legend of the "Sky's Tears" is my own. Any literary license taken with indigenous legends in this story is intended with the author's utmost respect to the Quileute Nation and will be removed immediately if they cause offense. Thanks as always to my reviewers: _fallunder, cylobaby, laurazuleta18, StealthLiberal, Manna1, hilja, EssaTheTwerp21, Cotton Strings, moani-sama, Buffyk0604, Roonani, Britt01, t(dot)bairdy, MadToTheBone1, TheNotoriousLIP, KerryH, Aleena Kiwiana, MargotTenser, The all mighty and powerfulM, 82c10akaLynn, Elvira Iula, toalli, all(dot)ears, Jacobleah, dirtychicken, chicadee74, _and_ shelbron_. Thanks everyone so very much, I really appreciate all the feedback. *hugs* It keeps me motivated to keep on typing. :D ~mel

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Eight

_**England, 1528 AD**_

_There were vampires at the ball._

_No one could tell, of course. The King's court was masked tonight in a costume of rich brocades, richer jewels and the lowest necklines that the court had seen in years, all spinning about each other on the ballroom floor in a dance of the rich and the richer, the cunning and the flatterers. And in the center were a vampire pair, their smiles easy and open, and their laughter falling lightly off of clever tongues._

_No one would expect that they had come to kill a single, and dare say he, _humble_ servant to the King. No one would expect that, except for the vampire that had _known_ they would be coming. _

_A vampire not under their control, living in the open and at the ear of King Henry…that was too dangerous a vampire to leave living, indeed. A smart creature would have fled long ago, but a smarter one preferred to stay right where he was, his arms around a beautiful woman as he watched more glide about the room, ruthless fools at the mercy of their lords and masters, puppets trying to pull their own strings. _

_Ricardo de Vaena would always say that he had been made for the courts. It was a place full of lust and ambition, sex and deception, fashion and intrigue. A woman on the arm of her husband, glancing through hooded eyes across the room at her lover. A husband oblivious to her betrayal as he plans his conquests in the bed of another. Wealth wrapped up in prestige, prestige tied in a nice neat ribbon and presented to the King as a living gift. A King who cast aside those presented to him at his pleasure, and a vampire to sit back and watch it all. There was nothing that Ricardo de Vaena enjoyed more. _

_In all his long existence, the Spanish vampire would never find a place that fit him better. There was always something to do, something of import to say, someone to kill. The King had his Great Matter, and it distracted him, and a distracted King was much more easily influenced. Not among Henry's main advisors, de Vaena played his games among the lesser nobles, after all, sex and blood all tasted the same when a body was stripped of its gilded coverings._

_It amused him to watch his kind wrap themselves in the same coverings de Vaena was so good at shedding from these pale Englishmen, and it amused him more when Aro himself had arrived that night, play acting a minor noble from the Italian courts, too minor to be presented to the King. As Aro's milky red eyes tracked him across the room. Ricardo de Vaena gazed in open appreciation at the weapon Aro had pressed to his side. _

_Clever man, Aro, to bring one of the wives, his own wife and the one that de Vaena was the most susceptible to. _

_There was a reason why de Vaena enjoyed redheads. After all, the first and most important one in his existence was sliding his way, another woman glancing across the room at a former lover as her husband considered conquering the world. Slim and breathtakingly beautiful, her fair strawberry-blonde hair curled and styled in the fashion of the moment, Sulpicia slipped through the crowds and came to stand before de Vaena, where he lounged with not one, not two, but three ladies in waiting, waiting on him, when they weren't making eyes at the King. _

_The wife of the Volturi curtsied deeply, her crimson eyes sparkling as she gazed up at de Vaena through lowered lashes. She had not made him, he had never listened to her rulings, but there had been a time when this creature had owned him completely. For nearly half a century he had graced her bed, her lips and thighs, and all of her other, more interesting parts, all the while her husband played his games in the next rooms over. Aro was unique in that he appreciated Sulpicia for exactly what she was, a destructive force of nature that needed to be allowed to destroy. Ricardo de Vaena was not the only plaything she had taken and cast aside at her fancy. He was not the only toy that she had broken and never picked back up again. _

_Ah, but how he still craved her, tasted her on his tongue still. A dangerous weapon indeed. _

_"My _lord_," Sulpicia murmured teasingly, her voice like a fine crystal bell, frosted from winter's cold even as it chimed. "It has been a while."_

_Eyes sweeping over her form (after all when a wife was allowed to be looked at, it was rude not to look), de Vaena rose with a clever smile, sweeping an equally deep, if not a touch deeper bow. "My _lady_," he purred, taking her hand in his own and rolling it to place a chaste kiss against the inside of her wrist. "You are as lovely as ever. Has your lord husband finally taken you out to amuse yourself, Sulpicia? Or are you simply hunting?"_

_Hunting for death. Hunting for him. _

_The wife rose from her curtsy and smiled charmingly at the younger, weaker vampire in front of her. "Is it not allowed to do both, dear friend?" she asked, sliding her hand through his arm with the ease of one who knows a man will leave any other for her pleasure. "Dance with me, de Vaena," she whispered enticingly near his ear, her eyes darkening in color, "I have longed for our dances, more than you may think." _

_And how they had danced in their times together. This was the one who had taught him to drink of his own kind, a perversion distasteful to even the Volturi themselves, but he could see the hunger of her hunt in her eyes. Amused, de Vaena laughed, the sound mingling with the music and the laughter of others, but momentarily bringing the King's regard. But only for a moment. The King had other, greater matters than them._

_"As you desire, my lady," de Vaena chuckled, sweeping Sulpicia onto the floor. Magnificent as always, she was deceptively pliant in his arms, the way she had once been deceptively pliant in his bed. The fact that he had brought her to lure Ricardo out, and most likely to his death, was an honor. Aro could have come alone, or he could have sent another, weaker vampire after him. _

_As he stepped gracefully to the music, cleverly pacing in the dictated steps of this dance, Ricardo felt a quiver of excitement roll down his spine. Maybe there wasn't another, maybe he was outlasting those that had always seemed to outlast everyone else. Or maybe it was his newly established political power that they feared. Either way, they feared him, feared him enough to strike at his deepest weakness, and that aroused the blonde vampire beyond anything that he had previously known._

_"Is there a reason that you've come to England, Sulpicia?" de Vaena asked playfully, feeling Aro's keen ears listening in to every word. The Spaniard turned the wife of another in his arms, winking at Aro from across the room. "Or have you just missed me?"_

_"I get to kill you," she purred, one polished fingernail lingering over his arm, a touch of fang showing behind crimson stained lips. "You have angered the Volturi with your audacity. But if you come easily, Ricardo, I'll take my time and make it as…pleasant as you could ever imagine."_

_"As pleasant as it always was, my lady?" de Vaena teased lightly, breaking the tradition of minimal contact between dancers by placing his hand on the side of her neck. The movement was quick, Ricardo hadn't been sure that she wouldn't be fast enough to stop him, but it seemed that a steady diet and an easy lifestyle had been good to him. He was finally faster than her._

_From the outside, his palm against her throat looked like a lover's caress, but in truth it was a deadly threat. Sulpicia was dangerous in her seduction, but even she would be hard pressed to reattach her own head, and de Vaena had lost to her one too many times before. He was enjoying his time here in the court of the King, and he had no desire to be tortured to death, not even by one such as Sulpicia. The wife stilled as his hand curled around the nape of her neck, although her movements remained graceful and in time with the others that spun around them. Chuckling at her wide-eyed startlement, Ricardo de Vaena leaned in and ghosted his lips along her jaw. She had fed recently, and he could still smell the blood sinking into her veins._

_De Vaena inhaled deeply, and then smiled against his enemy's skin. "I wonder, for the sake of protecting the Volturi's secrets, would Aro let me kill you right here? He could save you, my lady, but would he?"_

_A woman's body, even one as cold as ice, felt so nice quivering in fear against his own. Her answer was clear. To protect their secrets, the leaders of the Volturi would sacrifice all. Across the room, Aro had grown deathly, dangerously still. _

_Ricardo de Vaena smirked and let her go, bowing deeply as the final chords signified the end of the dance. "Tell your dear husband that he had my deepest regards, and that I must regret to inform him that I cannot accept his offer of relocation. In good faith, I'm returning to him his present." He let his eyes sweep over her beautiful form before grinning. "Aro should be thankful," the vampire chuckled, "I didn't even unwrap it this time."_

_Sulpicia's beautiful eyes flashed in hatred, even as she sank into a respectful curtsy, and by the time she had risen, her mate had joined her side. Wordlessly he took her by the arm and swept them both from the room. A jealous husband, withdrawing in a fit of rage that his wife had danced with another. Or maybe a vampire keeping his mate from attacking another in front of the King. They had given him a warning, a chance to accept their request to go easy, but he had politely declined. They would be coming for him in the shadows now, and this time they would strike first and speak later. _

_Throwing Sulpicia at him had been a nice touch. Some women's beds were worth dying for. However, Ricardo de Vaena wasn't ready to be done with his long life after death, not quite yet. Two of his ladies were still waiting, and he gave them a rakish grin. _

_A true gentleman never lets a woman wait._

_Between the wine and the laughter, a small slip of paper eventually was pressed into his hand by a servant. The King had work for de Vaena to do, so that night the Spaniard trailed a courtier home, and after he had drank his fill, de Vaena accidentally knocked over a candle on the dead youth's bedside table. The courtier had been in the middle of writing a love letter, and the vampire stuck it in his pocket for something to read later, enjoying the way that the city panicked and milled about when fire was in the air. There was no wind today, and de Vaena knew better than to burn his King's city down to nothing, but the stink of fear filled his nostrils, exciting him all over again. _

_Love making with anyone else couldn't compare to a single whispered word of implied promise from Sulpicia, so Ricardo de Vaena chose death over sex that night, ducking down an alley, one rich with the intoxicating scent of blood. A man lay bent over another's body, a small knife in his hand and a wild, equally hungry look in his eyes. It was death by hanging to murder another, but the vampire wasn't interested in justice. He was, however, interested in a nice meal, so he feed from both, splitting his hunger between the nearly dead and the barely living. _

_It was pure whim that made Ricardo de Vaena take the murderer's life and replace it with living death. _

_Maybe it was because the human had bathed himself in the blood of the one he had killed before the vampire had come across him, an action Ricardo himself had often enjoyed doing. Maybe the vampire simply found pleasure in listening to the man's muffled screams as the poison slid through his veins. De Vaena had never changed a human before, but de Vaena always had enjoyed collecting things and this one was beautiful, beautiful in his snarls of anger and his futile resistance to the change. He would be strong in death and even more beautiful. That was always good to know._

_It only took this one a day and a half of agony, the human's cries silenced behind a cold hand in a forgotten corner of the city, before he awoke a weak and starving newborn in Ricardo de Vaena's arms. And as the creature that de Vaena had created began to feed on the poor and the helpless, stealing them from the streets and dragging them back to his maker, Ricardo lit a fine cigar and exhaled contentedly. _

_"What's your name, friend?" Ricardo asked, closing his eyes and swaying with the sound of a fading heartbeat. The newborn raised his mouth from the jugular of a dying beggar boy and looked at the vampire that had made him. _

_"Neel," he whispered, eyes glowing crimson in the night. "My name is Neel." And then the newborn lunged back for the child's throat._

* * *

Somewhere between waking and dreams the vampire ripped out Leah's throat.

The she-wolf lunged out of her bed with a snarl, her hips slamming into her dresser as she bolted for the door. A wolf's hip was going to win against a dresser any day of the week, and it cracked loudly as Leah jerked open the door. She barely heard her mother's cry of surprise as she darted through the house, and then she was running, running as hard as she could.

They were going to all die. If she wasn't there, they were all going to die.

Leah had never been particularly intuitive as a human, but as a wolf she was a creature of instinct, and instinct had her making a break for the borderlines. In wolf form she was faster, but in human form they wouldn't see her, and she had a better chance of not getting caught. She needed to run, and she needed to run now. Get past the Alpha, get past the border, and get to them. They were all going to die without her. Run.

Instinct drove the she-wolf through the woods, but it didn't account for the fact that her Alpha was strong, stronger than the others, and even if her mind was safe from her Packmates, Packmates that would keep her here, her soul was growing more complexly linked to her Alpha every day. So it was his earth shaking howl that rose up into the night, thundering over the reservation as Jacob Black alerted his Pack that one of their own was in danger. That she, Leah, was in danger.

That was stupid, Leah wasn't in any danger. No, she was running…running to stop…to stop…to stop what? Where was she even going?

Leah's feet slowed only a fraction of a step, but it was enough to trigger that pull. That pull that felt like someone was squeezing her heart, making her _have_ to be somewhere else. She had to go, she had to. They were all going to die, she _**had**_ to go.

_No, she __**had**__ to stay here_.

Leah's Alpha's pull back was so hard that it made her stagger right before she hit the border, her momentum sending her stumbling to her knees. But she was wolf, and she was everything that the females of their kind had ever been meant to be, and she was back on her feet before even a wolf could blink an eye.

That hesitation was enough, allowed the wolf closest to her to dive in front of her and cut her off. A huge grey male with black spots on his back. A dangerous wolf, but she was stronger, faster, and she could fight her way past him. Didn't he understand? She _**had**_ to go.

Leah bared her teeth and sprang at him. She phased midair, the grey wolf's eyes sliding black as it braced itself for an attack, but it was an attack that never came. The Alpha was there, and his massive arm had snagged her around the waist even as she phased. With a strength of muscle mass none of the rest of them had, Jake slammed her wolf form into the ground, one huge hand wrapping around her muzzle and forcing it closed as he pinned her down into the dirt.

One last pull at her, leaving her snarling and trying to free her jaws from Jake's control. But one look in his eyes had the whites of her own eyes showing as they rolled in distress. The Alpha was _furious_, and his strength was pushing them all to the ground, the circle of wolves around them sinking to their bellies in the dirt.

Smaller meant that she might be able to slip out of his grasp, so Leah phased back, her claws gouging the Alpha's arm. Jake never even flinched.

"Jake, let me go," Leah growled into his palm, but the Alpha only flipped her beneath him, pinning her down by straddling her. Leah didn't care that they were both naked, she just wanted to be free. She hated being controlled, she hated it. He must have read that hatred in her eyes, because Jake let out a terrible snarl, one that shouldn't have been able to come from a human throat.

"Do you know what I hate, Lee-lee?" the Alpha spat. "I absolutely _hate_ other Alpha's fucking with my Pack. You're mine."

She had to…she had to go…

"Jake, let me go!" Let her go so she could run, so she could find them, because they were all going to die if she didn't…

"_**You're mine, Leah**_." And then his teeth sank into her throat, so hard that it hurt. Fuck, it _hurt_. Leah cursed and tried to fight it, but Jake sank his teeth deeper, enough that he must be able to taste her blood in his mouth. Forced into submission, a submission only Jake had ever been able to pull from her, Leah gave up and went limp beneath him. Her Alpha, she would do what he said. He was her Alpha. Hers. She had to.

And as if the admittance changed something, the compulsion was suddenly gone, the need to run slipped from her limbs until she was left with nothing but confusion and doubt.

Jake kept her pinned, but he stopped biting her, as if instinctively he knew the battle had been won. "Everybody leave," Jake snarled, and his Pack immediately began to slink backwards away from their furious Alpha. All but one that is. The sandy colored wolf whined unhappily, and Jake broke his gaze on Leah's eyes to stare at Seth. "Go, Seth. _Now_."

The Beta growled softly, showing his displeasure, but he finally did as he was told as well. It left Leah and Jake alone, and Leah stared up at Jake as she panted, trying to catch her breath from her headlong dive off of the reservation.

"Jake, I'm okay, you can let me go," she told him, but Jake wasn't listening. He was Alpha, and he was angry, and there was a very fine line between the need to dominate because of protecting what was his and the need to dominate to take what he _wanted_ to be his. Thus far the young Alpha had always controlled himself, but Leah knew she was a sore point with him. Alpha and she-wolf, they were tied to each other, and she was wolf.

She knew exactly what it meant to have an Alpha on top of her.

Jake was growling, his eyes sweeping over her body, lingering on her throat, and Leah could feel her heart beat increasing. But Leah wasn't the kind that let an Alpha take her in the dirt, not when it wasn't what she had planned on in the first place. Struggling might work, or it might turn him on more, so Leah locked eyes with her Alpha and narrowed them.

"I'm not fucking you, Jake," Leah said in a low dangerous voice. "And I'm not running anymore, so with the utmost respect, get your ass _off_ of me."

Jake snarled one more time, but then he sat back, shifting off of her. Leah went to sit up, but Jake snapped almost viciously, "Stay down." Leah's teeth showed at that one, but the Alpha tried to soften his voice. "Fuck Lee-lee, just give me a second, okay? Just let me calm down, it'll help me calm down."

Leah exhaled and then dropped back down into the grass. "Two minutes, asshole, and then temper tantrum or not, I'm getting back up." Jake didn't say anything to that, and Leah didn't say anything about the fact that his hands were gripping her upper thighs, as if he was one step away from hauling her hips to his and taking her. The she-wolf kept her eyes on his chest and upwards…you know…just in case she was right about the state he was in.

"Leah, you can't do that," Jake finally said, exhaling explosively before sighing and shifting away from her more. "You can't listen to them when they do that to you."

"I'm not listening to anyone, Jake," Leah replied, feeling a little embarrassed. "I just had this feeling, okay? That I needed to be somewhere else."

Jake gave her a look as if he couldn't believe she was being this dumb. It almost earned him his own bite in the throat when he said, "Leah. You're _smarter_ than this. You know as well as I do what's going on, why you keep getting pulled from La Push."

"I'm not a fucking puppet, Jake," Leah snapped, climbing to her feet and to hell if he wasn't calmed down enough yet for that. "And I really don't appreciate you calling the Pack down on me for this. If I want to go, I can go."

The Alpha climbed to his own feet, looking a mixture of angry and tired. "That's not true and we both know it."

"You told me down in Mexico that I wasn't a prisoner, Jake," Leah snarled. "You can't keep me here by force if I need to be somewhere else."

"You don't _need_ to be _anywhere_, Leah!" Jake finally roared, his temper blowing again, and Leah forced herself not to step back and away from him when he wheeled on her. "Another Alpha is fucking with you!"

"And how the hell do you know that, huh?"

"Because I can do it too," Jake growled, striding in and pushing dominantly into her personal bubble. "The she-wolf in Juneau, the one in Calgary, hell even that wolfborn girl back east…I can feel them more every day Lee-lee. And if I can feel them, then the other Alphas sure as hell can feel you too. Only I'm not fucking with them, I'm not pulling at them, because it's wrong. And it pisses me off that someone's doing it to you."

Leah opened her mouth and then clamped it shut, her teeth grinding. "I don't think…" she started to say, and then Jake _**pulled**_. He had never done it to her before, not like that anyways. Pulled them to his side, yes, but never like this. Leah didn't even know he could, but when he pulled it grabbed her at the heart of what made her wolf and made her stagger against him. Jake held the pull for a span of moments only, but in those moments all Leah knew was the Alpha, utterly dominated by his will of keeping her there.

This was how the culled Alpha had kept the now Calgary she-wolf in his Pack for so long, crushing her will beneath his. And for those brief seconds, Leah knew how absolutely she was trapped, trapped at the mercy of another. And then Jake stopped the pull, his arms wrapping around her and holding her gently against his chest.

"I'm sorry, Lee-lee," Jake whispered, his voice sad. "I never wanted to do that to you, but you have to understand what I _could_ do, what the others can do too. It's not safe for you to not know, not when I'm sure they are messing with you. If I could try and influence the other she-wolves to come to me, I know that the other Alphas can do it to you."

He went to stroke her hair from her face, and got her fist across his jaw. It was an awkward glancing blow, but he cursed and staggered back a half step, earning her the space she desperately needed.

"Don't," she said shakily, for the first time realizing that Jake could scare her. Sam and Jake, they had never scared her, but right now…right now Jake scared the hell out of her. She jerked out of his arms, and gave him a look of near betrayal. "Don't you _dare_ ever do that to me again, Jake. _Don't you dare_."

It was an empty threat and she knew it. The worst part was that Leah saw in Jake's eyes that he knew it too. Being outside of Pack rank didn't mean she was stronger than him, and never before had Leah realized just how dependent she was on the young man standing in front of her, his brown eyes sad and his shoulders slightly slumped as he rubbed at his jaw. They both knew that he could own her if he wanted to, and that knowledge made her fear spike.

"Lee-lee, you _know_ I would never-" Jake started to say, reaching out a hand to her, but Leah was already backing away.

She-wolves don't run away from their enemies, but Jake wasn't her enemy. Confused and uncertain, Leah snarled at him and then she fled.

* * *

They were slowly starting to trust her wolf.

Well, 'trust' might have been too strong of a term. They were slowly starting to get used to her wolf might be a better way of putting it. They were used to the fact that he would show up every Saturday exactly at ten minutes before noon, and they were used to the fact that he would leave exactly two minutes before four. They were used to the fact that he would greet her only in Quileute, and that unless asked a direct question by her, he wouldn't speak at all. They were used to the fact that for the four hours a week that the Hoquiam wolf sat on their couch, or their porch, or their front yard, that it would be the most boring four hours of the week for whomever was chaperoning Renesmee that day.

"How can you enjoy being around him, Nessie?" her Uncle Emmett once asked her, shaking his head after another visit came and went. "He doesn't do anything and he doesn't say anything. He's like a log that breathes."

But Renesmee only smiled and shrugged, because you see, she had a secret. Her wolf did talk and he talked to her. In fact, he talked all the time, if one simply paid enough attention.

Currently Jack was seated on her front porch, his feet bare despite the snow drifts that he had walked through to come see her today, and he was talking to her. He was talking to her with his eyes, playing a game that had taken her two visits and eight hours to completely understand. He would stare at her and she would stare at him, and when one of them blinked, the other would look at something. Whoever had blinked then had to find that something and look at it pointedly, letting the first know they had found it. It was a complicated game, one that took all of her speed and concentration to play. Often hours would go by when Renesmee would seem to only be staring silently at Jack, only to suddenly burst out into giggles because this time he had looked at her Aunt Rose and wiggled his nose, or that she had made him look at her bunny pen four times in a row, and the fifth time she had glanced at the house, making her wolf repetitively look right before realizing that he should have looked left.

It never occurred to her that he was teaching her something, or that after only a month her eyes began to track the things he felt worth glancing at, but it did occur to Renesmee that she was starting to notice things she hadn't before. She noticed every time that her Uncle Jasper came within a certain vicinity, or when her Aunt Rose began getting edgy, and she _always_ noticed when her Grandpa Carlisle moved. No matter what her grandfather was doing, it was worth being aware of.

At least, it was worth being aware of when Jack was there.

Renesmee had been dressed in a winter coat that day that was so large that she felt like a little blue marshmallow, her bronze curls braided to fit better under her knit hat, and her thankfully thirst-free throat wrapped in a fluffy matching scarf. She wasn't playing the game as well today because she kept growing distracted. She couldn't explain why, but her thoughts were fast today, the way they sometimes were, and it made it harder to focus. It was snowing, fat fluffy flakes that touched the ground silently, and because of her eyes continually flickering that way, Jack kept watching the snow fall. Finally he relaxed into watching the weather, not seeming bothered to have his back turned to Renesmee's father, where Edward stood watchfully a few feet away.

"Jack, why does it snow?" she asked suddenly. She could hear her father shift, because Edward knew that Renesmee knew exactly why it snowed. But she wasn't trying to be rude, or ask an adult a question she knew that they couldn't answer. She simply wanted to hear her wolf's voice and it was the first thing that came to her mind.

He was quiet for a very long time, and then his voice rumbled to her, rich in timbre despite the roughness of his throat. "In the summer, the sun is filled with heat, and he seeks out as many lovers as he can find," Jack said softly, his words for once in a language that she could understand. "Of these lovers, he most often lays with the sky, her arms open and empty as she welcomes his heat and his embrace. But, as it always does, winter eventually comes. The sun grows cold and lonely, and instead of spending long days with the sky, instead he slips away from the sky's embrace, and he seeks comfort in his first and most constant lover, the moon."

Jack paused, and he reached out a hand to touch the light dusting of snow that had fallen on the edge of the porch steps. His voice grew quieter, as if saddened, and he continued. "The sun and the moon chase each other through the sky, ignoring the sky as she grows more lonely and angry. The sun and the moon never notice her pain, for they care only for the days and the nights and each other. The shunned sky gathers about her the clouds to hide her shame, to block her from the sun and his rejection, and she weeps her frozen tears upon the land. The sky will weep until her lover, the sun, returns again to her."

Renesmee knew how snow was formed, but she was a child, and with a child's heart, Renesmee closed her eyes, and she pictured how sad and lonely the sky must be. Renesmee knew what it was to be lonely, even when surrounded by others. As she opened her eyes, she saw the biggest snowflake so far land on the porch in front of her, so the little girl stood up, and she walked into the yard, and she turned her face upwards.

"My studies say that snow is caused the precipitation of water in the atmosphere in the form of crystalline ice, Mister Jack," Renesmee said quietly, feeling very sad. "But I don't want the sky to cry."

Jack rose to his feet slowly, giving her father plenty of warning that he was doing so, and then he walked out into the yard and dropped to his haunches next to her. He scooped up a handful of snow and very carefully poured it into Renesmee's palm. "The sky is hìtkwotalítali, Renesmee. And she will always cry for her lost lover, it is her right. But she forgets something."

Renesmee looked at him, and the ancient wolf's lips curved into the slightest of smiles. His hand pressed into the frozen earth, scooping a tiny bit of dirt into his palm, and Jack placed his open hand beneath hers. Barely touching her with his fingers, Jack turned her cupped palm over, the snowflakes falling from her hand and over the dirt in his own. He said something in Quileute that she didn't understand, but when she asked him what that meant, he merely smiled at her. She would have to figure it out for herself. Renesmee watched her wolf carefully place the dirt back where he had scooped it from, the heat from his hand melting the snow and in turn softening the frozen dirt as he did so.

Jack grew quiet again as they returned to the porch, and for the first time even her father seemed to be growing bored. Renesmee however was an imprint, and even quiet time with her wolf was good time, and Jack seemed content to sit across from her on the porch and watch the snowfall as she read to him. He always liked hearing her read, even if he never commented on her words in a manner that she could interpret. But he would smile at her encouragingly every time she offered to read to him, and despite his silence, she knew he was listening.

Renesmee was growing used to his silence, a silence that she found intriguing. Her own family spent so much of their days quietly, sometimes motionless for hours at a time, and so it wasn't abnormal to her. What was abnormal was how…organic the wolf in front of her was. Despite his stillness and quietness, he was always in motion. His eyes were always moving, slipping over the world like liquid, covering and taking everything in all at once. His head would tilt slightly when he heard the smallest of sounds, a series of motions that were so wolflike that it fascinated her. His shoulders would rise and fall as he breathed, and unlike her, he never seemed to try and hold those motions still.

Why would he? Her wolf was a wolf, and had no reason to want to blend in with vampires.

Renesmee had spent so much time trying to imitate her family that it was hard to remember what it was like to not try and hold herself to stillness. Motion was a reaction, not an action in her world, a reaction that could be controlled if she just tried hard enough. But her wolf never tried to control it, and Renesmee wondered what it would be like to live that way, allowing oneself to be as organic as he was, allowing oneself to accept the fluidity of life and not the rigidity of death.

Her words caught in her throat as she thought about death, and wondered if her family was dead, and if half of her was dead too.

"No, Nessie, you aren't dead, not even halfway," her father told her quietly from his place on the porch, and it wasn't the first time that she had heard that aching tone of sadness in his voice. Edward's words caused her wolf to look at her, to focus in on her, a frown on his face.

It had never occurred to the little girl that her wolf often seemed lost in thought, almost as if sunken into his own world, but his gaze seemed to go right through her as he looked at her now. It was different, and different things tended to bring out her shyness, so Renesmee ducked her head.

"Yes, Daddy," Renesmee mumbled, and her wolf frowned deeper. He said something to her father in Quileute, something that sounded brisk and stern, and then he stood up.

Jack always said goodbye when he left her, although it was only a small smile and a few words, a touch of his fingers against his throat. Renesmee had started smiling back as her own goodbye, and touching her stomach. Her thirst and his hunger, it was the first thing that they had truly understood of each other, and in Renesmee's head she liked to think that their goodbyes were saying that they knew each other, even though in truth she knew very little about her wolf.

She did know him a little though, and Jack had never left early, and he never left without saying goodbye. Renesmee looked at her father in confusion as her wolf padded through the snow and disappeared into the woods. "Daddy? Is Mister Jack leaving?" she asked in confusion, and her father frowned himself.

"No, Renesmee. He's…" Suddenly her father's face softened in his own confusion, as if he was listening. After a few minutes of silence, Edward suddenly laughed. "Well, that's a first."

"What is, Daddy?" Renesmee wondered, but then the answer was in front of her. A large brindled wolf was slinking out of the woods, although compared to the rest of the La Push Pack, he was smaller, about the same size as Leah's wolf form.

It was Jack, her wolf, and Renesmee forgot momentarily that half of her may or may not be dead when she surged to her feet in excitement. She had always loved seeing the Pack in wolf form, but had only rarely been allowed close to Jacob and Seth when they were like that, a rule Jacob himself had set. The Alpha didn't like the imprints or the humans that knew about the Pack to get too comfortable around the wolves when they were phased, or the wolves to get comfortable with it either. Accidents could and had happened, and Jacob wasn't taking any chances with his Pack.

Edward made an amused sound in his throat. "He wants to give you something, Renesmee," Edward said, and Renesmee blinked in surprise.

"I thought that you couldn't interpret his thoughts," she said and her father nodded, eyes on the brindle wolf settling down in the snow.

"I can't," Edward admitted. "At least not beyond the words I've picked up from him teaching you, but he's trying to think in English." This seemed to amuse her father even more. "He's not very good at it, and he wants to remind me that something is attacking his tongue right now."

Sure enough, the wolf's huge muzzle was being held slightly differently than normal, and when Renesmee noticed, Jack's tail began to wag slowly in acknowledgement of her acknowledgement. Her father took her hand and led her towards the wolf, and Jack ignored the vampire, large brown eyes focused on the little girl. Renesmee could hear unhappy chittering coming from the wolf's jaws, a sound very much unlike the ones that normally came from a wolf's mouth.

Maybe they _were_ starting to trust her wolf, or maybe Jack had thought something reassuring to Edward, but her father stopped a few feet away from the crouched wolf, his hand gently guiding Renesmee forward. She shuffled a few steps closer and her wolf playfully scooted backwards in the snow, wagging his tail a little harder. Renesmee giggled and took a full step forward. Her wolf, still keeping his jaws closed awkwardly, rose slightly and took a full step backwards. On a whim, Renesmee hopped backwards, and then burst out laughing when the brindle wolf pounced forward, dropping his front half into the snow in that kind of half crouch that said a canine wanted to play. The chittering in his mouth was louder, and Renesmee gasped in dismay when her wolf opened his jaws for a moment, showing a small, wide-eyed bird resting on his tongue.

"Mister Jack!" Renesmee instinctively pleaded with him, horrified. "Oh no! _Please_ don't eat the bird."

She wasn't sure why it mattered to her, considering that half of her survived on the blood of creatures, and the other half of her survived on their flesh. Creatures like this little bird. Renesmee was pretty sure that she was a hypocrite for not wanting the bird to die, but she didn't. She didn't like death, it scared her, and she didn't want something else to maybe be all dead when the still lingering possibility of her being half dead was still floating in the back of her mind.

The bird saw the opening in Jack's jaws and tried to fly out, but he closed his muzzle again, and Renesmee made an unhappy sound. "Mister Jack, if you're hungry I can make you a sandwich, or something better," she offered, taking a step forward, the wolf slinking back half a step as she did. Her wolf yipped playfully, and Renesmee caught another glance at the frightened bird in his mouth. She looked at her father for help, but Edward was watching them both in interest, and then he gave his daughter a small smile.

"Well, Ness?" Edward asked in his serene voice. "What are you going to do?"

Renesmee wanted very badly for her wolf to let go of the bird, but she understood that he was an adult and she was not and it wasn't her place to criticize. He obviously thought he was playing, but the bird was scared, and Renesmee really didn't like that.

"_Mister Jack_," the little girl lectured, trying to sound as stern as possible, using the voice she sometimes used when Jacob was being particularly silly. "You're scaring it, so would you please put the bird down? _Please_?"

And so he did, although having the brindle wolf flatten his muzzle against the ground and give her an amused look wasn't exactly what she had in mind. She took another step forward, and Jack batted his front paw at the snow in front of him, sending a fluffy mist of the sky's tears up between them. The bird squawked miserably and as if the pathetic noise had triggered something protective in her, Renesmee lunged for her wolf.

She didn't know if she would have bit him, although her fangs had extended instinctively, but the brindle wolf waited half a second too long to dart away. She managed to get her hands against his muzzle, so close to the poor little bird but not close enough to free it, and then Jack bounded into the deeper snow towards the woods. Forcing her fangs into retracting, Renesmee leapt after him, and she almost got him too, because for some reason her wolf rolled onto his back in the snow, doing a full somersault before twisting and darting away again. Renesmee chased him at full speed and because she knew how to hunt, she ducked into his blind spot behind his heels. It should have worked, should have made him look back over his shoulder to see where she was and give her a chance to lunge again, but her wolf suddenly slammed on the brakes and flattened himself against the ground.

If Renesmee's puffy winter coat looked like a blue marshmallow, then at the moment she was a flying blue marshmallow as she ran straight into her wolf's hindquarters, her momentum launching her up and over him. But marshmallow or no, Renesmee landed on her feet and twisted, dropping down into a crouch to face her wolf.

She held out her hand and narrowed her eyes. "Mister Jack, please give me the bird."

And so he did, crawling forward towards her on his belly, tail still wagging. When he reached her, Jack opened his massive jaws to reveal the small, terrified sparrow in his mouth. It was too scared to try and fly away, so Renesmee reached into Jack's muzzle with her tiny hands and picked it up off of her wolf's tongue, heedless of his razor sharp jaws. Renesmee unwrapped her scarf from her neck and wrapped it around the bird, hugging it to her chest and giving her wolf an indignant look.

"That was mean, Mister Jack," she said with a childlike indignance, and her wolf whined before flopping over dramatically onto his side, hitting her with puppy dog eyes that Renesmee forced herself to ignore. He stayed there, looking quite piteous as Renesmee marched past her father and up to the porch, sitting back down on the steps. She glared at him again, and the brindle wolf patted his paw at his nose, leaving it there to cover his eye from her glare. Renesmee bit down on her smile at that, she couldn't smile because she was angry at her wolf for hurting a poor little bird, but as Renesmee began to check the sparrow for damage to its wings or legs, to her shock she saw that with the exception of a few lost feathers, the sparrow was fine. It chirped at her, then took a few hopping steps onto her knee.

"It is believed by my people that there are two kinds of beings in the world, Things-With-A-Spirit and Things-Without," her wolf's roughened voice rumbled quietly as he stepped up to the porch, now clothed and in human form, with her father at his heels. He must have changed in the woods while she was checking the bird, and Renesmee was a little embarrassed that she hadn't noticed.

Under Edward's protective gaze, her wolf knelt down in front of her, and after looking at her father first for permission, Jack very carefully cupped the sparrow into his hand and guided it to her own, the tiny bird taking a few hopping steps to perch on her knuckles. "The earth, the sky, the trees, the sparrow…all these things have a spirit, Renesmee. And for these things there is no death, only a journey from this world into the next. The spirit world, a place of rest and peace, of knowledge and guidance."

Renesmee smiled when the bird chirped again, its tiny claws scraping at the thinner skin across her knuckles. "How do you know what has a spirit and what does not?" she asked him, and her wolf said something in Quileute, and then seemed to try to find the right way to put it into another language.

Finally he spoke softly, "If one does not have a spirit, it cannot connect to the spirit of another. The bird on the twig quickly flies away, the bird on your hand stays for a moment longer. The spirit of the bird will live on, and so will the spirit that rests inside the hand. Be at peace, for Those-With-A-Spirit have nothing to fear, and for you there is less to fear then all others. You are protected, imprint and Packmate. Be at peace."

Renesmee looked over at her father, and Edward smiled at her reassuringly, even though she knew that her father's religious beliefs and her wolf's conflicted deeply. Their combined reassurance made her feel…calm, and it was instinct to reach her hand out to press it against her wolf's arm, to show him that she appreciated his words, and his ways, and him wanting to be her friend. The movement startled the sparrow, and it flapped out its wings and sprang into the air. Renesmee felt the faintest brush of wind against her cheeks and then the sparrow was gone, disappearing back towards the place Jack had caught it.

Her wolf listened to her thoughts until she was through, and then he very gently shifted her hand away, tapping her palm with his thumb. "Ayásochid, Renesmee?" he asked, the way he always did when she fell back on her gift to explain what she felt, and Renesmee blushed a little but smiled at him charmingly. Expressing herself was difficult so she leaned forward and hugged him instead. It was brief, but for the smallest of moments, her wolf's hand rested lightly on her capped head, and then Edward cleared his throat.

Renesmee pulled away and then she said, "You shouldn't tease birds, Mister Jack. One day one of them might gobble you up instead."

"I am wolf, and have an imprint to protect me," Jack murmured serenely, and she giggled when he opened one eye and winked at her. "She will grow to be a match for Thunderbird himself, and our Pack will feast on the whale flesh that she steals from his mighty claws, and grow fat in contentment. Even the Alpha is not as lucky as I."

She didn't know who Thunderbird was, but Jack's praise made Renesmee beam, and wiggling a little in her seat, she clutched her book to her chest, not knowing what to say. She took refuge in watching the snowflakes fall, trying to think of a way she could prove to him that she was worth his kindness, and his words, and his time.

"And the spirit of the sky misses the spirit of the sun, so she cries," Renesmee repeated shyly for her wolf to show that she had been listening. "Because she is hìt… hìtkwo…" Renesmee stumbled on the word, so foreign sounding to her ears.

"Hìtkwotalítali," Jack softly supplied for her, and Renesmee thought about that word for a moment, a new word in her growing world.

"Hìtkwot…alítali," the little girl said slowly, her tongue struggling to shape around the sounds right. "_Hìtkwotalítali_." She was pleased with herself and grinned at her father, who smiled back. "But I still don't know what the sky forgets, Mister Jack," she added honestly.

Her wolf's lips curving slightly was his only reply.

* * *

It was a long way from Paul's cabin into town, especially if you end up limping through snow the entire time. Good thing Cassie considering limping through snow more like skipping through snow, only at a statelier pace. She cheerfully ignored the fact that Collin was going to kill her for not calling someone to drive her, or for waiting for him to get off of patrol.

It was for the best, really. Collin's parents had caught wind that their son was sneaking out every night again and had found out that he was spending the nights at Paul Coho's home, even though Paul had been gone from the reservation for most of the last two months. To say that they had handled their teenage son's "illicit affair with an older woman" well would be a gross understatement. Collin had ended up in a yelling match with his frustrated father, had ended up putting his worried and loving mother in tears in convincing her that he and Cassie weren't sleeping together, and when someone mentioned the words "statutory rape", Collin had lost his car keys, his cell phone, and his temper.

It took a lot of sheer strength to snap a granite island countertop with your bare fist, but Collin managed it. They were putting him back in therapy again starting next Thursday.

Collin had agreed to go again if they would let this whole him supposedly sleeping with Cassie Fedorova thing go, and his parents had grudgingly agreed. Still, Cassie was getting a lot of distrustful looks these days when she went anywhere with Collin, so in effort to try and make his life easier, she had convinced Jake to convince Collin that she was okay being left alone every night. Cassie did very well pretending that she was doing just fine being left alone, she was an adult after all, even if she hadn't been this isolated…well…ever.

Isolated people had a tendency of either growing needy for company or growing reclusive, but Cassie had always liked to do things her own Cassie way, so she preferred to think of the time alone as her own therapy. After all, she had been through a pretty traumatic series of events, and a little time healing never hurt anyone. Cassie had developed lots of fun ways to self-heal. Anatomically correct snowman making was very high on her list of healing activities, developing a rodent companion clothing line called Squirrel Couture was high as well, and she was particularly fond of prank calling her Packmates. Sam had checked his refrigerator twice now to see if it was running, and Quil never failed to make her laugh when she called in breathy voices and asked for ways to contact his mother.

Life got better when Seth gave her Leah's old bedazzler, and when bedazzling Paul's shirts and boxer shorts lost its appeal, she moved on to sneaking into her Packmates' homes and bedazzling their clothing instead. Seth had taken the bedazzler away when someone bedazzled "Love Man" into every pair of underclothing that Quil Ateara Sr. owned, and Cassie had to admit that the look of anger on the old man's face when he had demanded which of the Pack had done so had been well worth any squeamishness his underwear drawer had given her. Collin, ever her champion, had tried to take the fall, but Cassie had simply shrugged and told Quil Sr. that he really was more of a boxer briefs type of man and that he should consider a change one of these days.

Apparently Embry was still laughing about that one, although Cassie could check one more name off the list of people in La Push that still liked her. If Paul didn't come home soon, she'd be down to Pack only.

Watching a collection of Collin's, Brady's, and Leah's combined stashes of porn had just left her bored, trying to do a handstand in the shower had nearly drowned her, and trying to make the milk last a week past its expiration date had left her sick as a dog. When stamping giant messages in the snow grew redundant, after all no one had called Billy Black for a good time no matter how clearly Cassie stamped his phone number, Cassie decided to risk limping into town. It was a long way, but in all honesty, Cassie didn't have anything better to do.

Pyatno must have felt the same because he decided to follow her at a discreet distance the entire way into town.

The reservation was quiet for a Saturday, possibly because Christmas was coming in a few days and a lot of the residents had driven into the larger towns of Forks and Port Angeles to go Christmas shopping. As she walked down the main street that cut through town, Cassie gazed happily at the Christmas lights on some of the houses, and grinned widely at a group of kids playing tag through the front yards of their neighbors. It was snowing that day, fat fluffy flakes that Cassie tried to catch on her tongue whenever she stopped to rest her sore legs, and it was on one such stop that she noticed someone sitting on the steps of the cultural center, so bundled up in a jacket that he looked like the green cloth was eating him. One more snowflake and Cassie wandered over that way, giving the kid a smile.

After all, teenage boys that spent their Saturdays alone in front of cultural centers probably needed someone to smile at them.

Hoping that she didn't get accused of sleeping with this kid too, Cassie plopped down next to the large, rawboned youth and gave him a grin. "Hello," she chirped cheerfully. "You looked lonely, and that's never good because it's a Saturday and if there's ever a day to not be lonely it's a Saturday. I'm Cassie by the way, and the squirrel over there on the wall is Pyatno, but he likes it better if he thinks we can't see him." Pyatno squeaked ominously as Cassie extended her hand. "What's your name?"

The kid blinked, then blinked again, and Cassie considered the fact that maybe she would have to talk slower. Without very many people to talk to these days, her accent was coming out more when she spoke. But then the kid took her hand, moving slowly and carefully, as if he was trying not to mess it up.

Red faced from the cold, and possibly her, the kid sniffed and mumbled, "Owen." He cleared his throat awkwardly and then repeated himself. "I'm Owen."

"Owen. I like that name," Cassie decided, shaking his hand vigorously. "So Owen, what is a guy like you doing on a snow covered step on a day like this?"

The kid went redder and turned away, and he mumbled something she didn't understand, his words catching a little. So Cassie wrapped her arms around her knees and bent over, tipping her head so that she could see his face better. "I'm sorry, Owen, I didn't quite catch that," she said kindly, and the kid looked down at his feet.

"I'm supposed to meet someone," he repeated in little louder, and from the quick way he glanced at her and then looked away, she knew it was a lie. Sometimes people lied, and sometimes those reasons were good and sometimes those reasons were bad. Cassie had long since considered herself in a position to judge someone else, so she just smiled and nodded.

"I'm supposed to meet someone too," she said, lying right back. "In case they bail on me, will you keep me company?"

The kid stared at her. Pyatno stared at the kid. Cassie winked at them both, and then caught a snowflake on her tongue.

Cassie learned a lot that day. She learned that snowflakes taste the same in Washington as they do in Russia. She learned that Owen was a freshman in high school, and even though he never came out and said it, it was obvious that he was a little slower than most, but that he was smart enough to realize it and be bothered by it. He spoke in smaller sentences, he seemed more comfortable that way, and when Leah Clearwater walked by with a can of Slim Jims, raising her eyebrow at Cassie curiously, Owen turned an interesting shade of purple and ducked his head until she was gone.

Cassie learned that Owen didn't like Brady Jennings, he thought that Brady was kind of mean and picked on people, and he had a crush on Nikki Connweller, but she was interested in a sophomore. But when Leah Clearwater came back past, Slim Jim free and with Samantha Carter at her heels, Owen mumbled something about having to use the bathroom before fleeing inside the cultural center. He slipped on the steps not once but twice, although the first time he managed to catch himself. The second time he ate concrete, and it occurred to Cassie that maybe she shouldn't have tried to help him up.

Proximity to girls was apparently a thing for this kid.

Leah was distracted and probably would have kept on walking a second time. Samantha however, looked ecstatic, something to do with Embry and her getting into a fight, or maybe she got into a fight because of Embry…no, no, it was that Embry got _Samantha_ a fight. An MMA fight. Samantha was excited enough to unthinkingly invite Cassie, who after learning what MMA was, politely declined. Cassie didn't like to watch people hurting each other, and to be honest, Jake wasn't letting her off the reservation for anything besides Pack activities anyways.

Cassie would stay here with her squirrel, and her snow, and (as soon as the females disappeared out of view) her Owen. Cassie had never had an Owen before, but he seemed nice. Talking to him made her miss Jonathan Wells, and Baba too, and so Cassie focused on Owen. He liked baseball, and he wished he didn't have to get tutored after school each day. His favorite ice cream was chocolate chip cookie dough, and Cassie high-fived him because they had that in common.

Pyatno disappeared for an hour and came back with a tissue and a pleased expression on his furry little face. Cassie wasn't really sure why.

No one ever came to meet Cassie, and no one ever came to meet Owen, so Cassie decided to help him out by declaring herself stood up first. Then she got up, smiling even as she sniffled from the cold and brushed the snow off of her jeans and Paul's jacket. "Well, Owen. It was wonderful to meet you," Cassie informed him happily as she gathered up her squirrel and the tissue to her chest, meaning every word as she added, "I hope we can get stood up together again sometime."

He mumbled an offer to walk her home, which was very nice of him, but Cassie politely declined. After all, the kid would probably get enough heat for just talking to her for a few hours, because some reputations would follow you, no matter what decisions you now chose to make. The walk back to the cabin was slow, her legs really did hurt these days, much more than they ever had. But that too was self-help, was therapy, was a reminder of the places she had walked and other decisions she had made and the repercussions therein.

Cassie cuddled her squirrel all the way home, and she dried to get warm and dry but the generator was going out again. Cassie tried to fix it, then gave up and curled up in her and Paul's bed. She dreamed off cookies and her father's smile, and Paul's warm hands on her skin, content in knowing her other half was coming home soon.

Two thousand miles away, a tired man worked, silently calming an inner wolf that was deeply afraid of open water. As he did, Paul wondered just how the hell he was supposed to tell his imprint that he was going to miss their first Christmas.

* * *

It wouldn't be much longer now. Eleventh months was a long time for any mother to wait.

The buckskin mare was so heavy with foal that she looked awkward, cumbersome. Her belly was distorted to the point that even standing she looked uncomfortable, and Jack probably didn't need to have her tied to the split rail fencing the way she was. Her tan winter coat was thick and coarse, but as he ran a hand over her back, the ancient wolf decided that he'd better put a blanket on her tonight. The days had been cold lately and the nights were growing even worse, and they lived partially off the money selling these colts could bring. It wouldn't do to lose one to the weather, not when they were shy the other mare Rico had eaten.

Sometimes cohabitation with a Cold One was…inconvenient.

"How's she doing?" The vampire in question called out cheerfully, his voice much louder than necessary for Jack's sensitive ears as Rico sauntered over to the fence and kicked his boot up on the lower rail. "We got a new one coming yet?"

Rico liked the young horses, enjoyed watching them run around on their tall spindly legs, although Jack had never been sure if it was because they amused him or because the natural predator in the vampire could appreciate more vulnerable prey. Rico's shoulders were relaxed and his golden eyes seemed content as he looked at the mare, but as soon as he slumped on the upper rail, Rico lit up a cigarette. It meant that he was hungry again, something that the vampire had been more of lately. Jack wasn't exactly sure why, but it seemed impolite to ask.

It was strange seeing Rico without his hat on, a hat that Jack had given him so very long ago, but Jack's imprint was in possession of that hat now. Jack would have to get Rico a new one.

"She's off her feed," Jack said quietly, running a hand down the mare's front left leg and lifting it up. "She'll drop the foal any day now, but I pulled her out because she was off in the front. She's got heat in this hoof, near the wall."

Rico grunted and ducked the fence, walking over and sticking his lit cigarette behind his ear. Jack smiled a little at that, his old friend had lit himself on fire more than once that way, and Jack shifted over so that Rico could take the mare's foot. Pulling a pick out of his back pocket and scraping the underside clean of ice and dirt, Rico put his nose against the mare's hoof and sniffed deeply.

"Yeah, she's got an abscess," the vampire agreed. Jack's nose was good, but the vampire's was better at distinguishing between heat caused by blood and heat caused by infection. "Damn, honey," Rico told the mare, setting her leg down and patting the mare's shoulder fondly. "You're twice as big as a house and half again as wide. This ain't no time to be hopping on three legs instead of four."

The mare had the dignity to be offended. She showed it by flicking an ear and falling asleep.

"Is it bad?" Jack asked, because as good as the wolf was with the animals, the vampire was better. Rico shook his head, scraping a little at the front of the mare's hoof with his fingernail. The outside wall of the hoof was extremely hard, but compared to a vampire fingernail, it was as easy as cutting through soft butter. A tiny scrape was enough to open the infection to the air, and Rico sniffed again as it began to slowly drain.

"Naw, not too bad," the vampire decided. "You caught it in time, but we need to drain it as much as we can. I don't want her lame when that baby comes."

An abscess meant that they would be spending a while soaking the mare's hoof in salt water, so Jack went about checking the mare for any other signs she'd foal that night, only halfway listening to the voices in his head muttering their disapproval. They were louder these days, their words clearer, but Jack had other things to pay attention to as he worked. Like the rest of the Pack, even the wolves up in Alaska, Jack was completely distracted by their Alpha, who had been barely controlling his rage since yesterday. Someone was influencing their she-wolf and their Alpha didn't like that one bit.

Alphas never did.

Jack had been too far away to get to La Push in time to help yesterday morning, even though Jake's anger had pulled the ancient wolf from sleep and had him at a dead run for La Push without even realizing why. But when the Alpha called on his Pack, it was their place to come to him instantly. Unfortunately the Alpha was young enough, green enough that he didn't know how to lighten that pull on their bodies when he was still out of sorts. It was always possible that the young Alpha was simply so strong that this _was_ him pulling lightly on the Pack, but either way, it was a struggle for Jack not to crawl on his belly to Jake's side, to stay there for as long as the Alpha needed him. Jake was better today than he had been yesterday, but the young often didn't know themselves or their own strength well enough to keep from affecting those around them, and Jacob Black was no exception.

_T'sikáti could have taught him to be the greatest Alpha they had ever seen_.

Even as the thought occurred to Jack, making him flinch from fuzzy memories of people and places he wasn't allowed to remember anymore, another young creature pulled at him, but in a different way. It pulled at his senses, making him feel hunger when he had already eaten today, thirst when he wasn't thirsty. Thirst was followed by contentment, which rolled into confusion. Jack had been imprinted for only a matter of months, weeks really, but he had experienced what was to come next often enough to brace himself for it.

His half-vampire imprint's emotions were like a sheet of heated glass, bendable and malleable only for so long, until they became harder, more rigid, more brittle as they cooled. Heated she was strong, but cooled she was weaker, more vulnerable. Jack could feel it coming, had his hands running down the mare's hip when that glass suddenly shattered, pieces flinging in every direction. A child's emotions, but so strong, too strong, too confusing for even an adult to know how to handle. No wonder his young imprint so often seemed at a loss at what to do, how to act, who to be. The outside was merely a reflection of what was contained within, and what was within her was fragmented, jumbled, and there was lots of it.

There was too much of it. For every part of him that existed, there was a hundred parts of her, and Jack often wondered if in trying to shoulder the imprint alone, he had doomed himself to be shattered too, more than the world had already made him.

This imprint bond was one sided, but it was strong. So very strong. Strong enough that it was changing him, and not in ways that were easy to accommodate. Besides the constant barrage of her emotions, there was this disconcerting sense of awakening. There had been a deep haze over Jack's mind for a long time, and as lost as the ancient wolf could often be, that haze had always brought with it protection along with confusion. Not understanding the voices that chanted in his head, so angry at him, so forceful in their disapproval, but those voices muted partially in his mind. Apologizing to them, begging the ancestors for their forgiveness had never appeased them, but that haze had always protected him from the worst of their wrath.

But now there was a child stepping through him, her tiny feet leaving footprints across his soul, and where she stepped that haze was dissipating. The spirits and the ancestors, they were still so very angry, and now he could hear that anger in louder, more furious voices. Nearly constant now, they never let up, not even in his dreams. It hurt his head, hurt his body in the effort to keep himself from trying to fight an attack that was always coming, an attack that he grew more and more resentful of every day. He _was_ sorry…He really was sorry for what he had done.

His dead Alpha thought that Jack may be sorry, but that he seemed angry too.

There wasn't much Jack could say to that.

The ancient had grown too lax in his distraction, and suddenly Rico was behind him without Jack noticing. If Rico had wanted to kill him then, the vampire could have, but the cowboy seemed more interested in stepping past Jack and kicking the snow away from the ground with his boot. He handed Jack a bundle of things and set the bucket in his hand down in the cleared spot, the steaming hot water sloshing over one of the sides as he picked the mare's foot up and eased it into the water. She was the good sturdy kind of animal, and besides thumping the bucket bottom once with her foot, she stayed still.

"Atta girl," Rico murmured soothingly, giving her leg another pat. Then he grinned over at Jack. "Coulda gotcha there, old wolf," Rico said, and Jack grunted.

"I was distracted," he admitted, leaning against the fence and listening to the wind, the mare's heartbeat, his imprint's sudden amusement playing across his heart.

Rico smirked and went to tug his hat down over his eyes. When his hand met nothing, the old vampire laughed at himself. "You've doing that for a while now, Jackie boy, letting your guard down. It's gonna get you in trouble one of these days."

Jack nodded, but said nothing, and the vampire made a clucking noise when the mare shifted, his cold hand steadying the bucket so she didn't tip it over. "The Cullen girl's messing with you, isn't she?" Rico asked after a few minutes, and Jack glanced at his oldest living friend.

"She is my imprint," Jack said, as if that was all there was to it, and Rico chuckled, settling in to let the mare's foot soak. The ancestors had never liked Jack's proximity to Rico, had never liked Jack's refusal to kill him, and they pushed at him, at the part of him that had been born and bred to kill Cold Ones. Simultaneously Jake's temper flared, pulling Jack that way, and Renesmee was happy, shifting him back another. Feeling as if he was tearing apart at the seams, Jack closed his eyes and thought of a woman, one that he still tried to find comfort in even though she was long gone away. A fierce woman with long dark hair and fiery eyes, one that he had loved, one that he would always love…

His dead Alpha thought that always was a very long time indeed, for ones as old as they were.

"Enough," Jack growled out loud, shaking his head as if the physical movement would free him from the frustration of being too little stretched between too many. To his credit, Rico didn't acknowledge the fact that Jack had spoken when no one else was speaking. In fact, the vampire didn't even blink, as if that was commonplace for him.

For the first time in centuries, it occurred to the ancient wolf that he may have been speaking out loud to nothing for a very long time.

"You okay, Jackie?" Rico drawled lightly. "You look like someone just sucker punched you."

Jack opened his fingers and closed them again, exhaling slowly. "I am…feeling much that I have never felt before. It is…painful."

"Waking up always is," the vampire chuckled, lighting up another cigarette. "And you, old wolf, have been asleep since I pulled you out of la la land. 'Bout damn time, I say, you were starting to grate on the nerves a little bit. You think it's the girl or the pup Alpha that caused it?"

Jack didn't know, but if he were to hazard a guess he would say it was a combination of the two, although he guessed it was mostly his imprint. His body language must have told his friend so.

"Well, it's not that surprising," Rico decided easily, lifting the mare's foot and drying if off with one of the towels Jack handed him. He handed it back and got a tub of poultice in return. "It's not every day a wolf imprints on his mortal enemy. Well, half mortal enemy to be more accurate. Good thing there aren't a lot of half mortal enemies out there, life could get kinda confusing."

"Are there more?" Jack suddenly rumbled, tipping his head as he looked at the vampire curiously. "I had never encountered a half vampire child before her."

Rico grew still for a moment before returning to his task of applying the poultice to the tiny crack where the abscess would eventually work its way out. "More like her?" Rico asked. "Yeah, there are a few more, but the only ones I've ever heard of came from that little pixie searching them out. Apart from that, there won't be many. A handful at most."

Jack thought about that, and then he frowned. "Why? There have been Cold Ones for as long as there have been Tlokwali, longer still. Why so few?"

Rico smirked a little and gave Jack a knowing look. "We trading information here, Jackie boy? Cause interested parties got some questions about those kids you been running with."

Jack's reply was a flat look that had the vampire grinning even more. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. No trades," Rico chuckled around his cigarette. "But I was thinking the same thing you're thinking, back when her daddy got that human knocked up. Way I figure it, the Cullen kid ain't that old, only about a century or so. He's still got some parts working that some of us older vampires don't, we've just been around too long."

"Parts that don't work?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow with a small smirk, and Rico grinned at him.

"_Some_ parts, Jackie boy, some parts don't work anymore. Most of the parts still do," the vampire promised in an amused voice. "Most of the parts work just fine, at least the important ones. But the thing about it is, there ain't a lot of us that would want to make those parts work, not with a human anyways. Just 'cause you like getting laid and you like a nice juicy steak don't mean you're gonna go fuck the cow before dinnertime."

The ancient wolf blinked at that image, and Rico started wrapping gauze around the mare's hoof, smirking at his own words. "It takes a special kind of demon to want to play _that_ much with its food."

"Like you," Jack murmured calmly, and the vampire spat his cigarette butt off to the side.

"Like me," Rico chuckled. "Just like me. Those that would play that way, well most of them can't separate their screwin' from their killin'. If you don't end up killing your human from going too hard, it's the little things that'll getcha. The scent of their arousal, the sweat dripping down their limbs, the sounds that they make…it's not that much different hunting for sex and hunting for food. Hell, the noises are even the same, if you're doing it right."

His eyes were darkening slightly as he spoke, and Jack watched his friend with a little more caution than before.

"The kind of control it takes to learn not to kill your lover at the end…well, you don't learn that very fast," Rico admitted. "At least, not most of us. Cullen's kind of a freak in that way. When the rest of us get our shit together, we're usually long past the point of it mattering. You can fire the gun as often as you want, but you're shooting blanks every time."

Jack smiled a little at that. "Perhaps the world is a better place with only one of you, old friend," Jack murmured, and Rico grinned as he finished wrapping the mare's hoof.

"Ain't that the truth?" he agreed, standing up and brushing his hands off. "But that's probably for the best. Sometimes thing are rare because they aren't supposed to be in the first place. Being special isn't always a good thing. That imprint of yours is growing three times as fast as she should, and that's gotta be messing her up some. Plus she's so thirsty, it's carrying over to you, and it's making me thirsty as hell just being around you. If you keep rubbing your throat the way you've been doing these last weeks, I'm going to have to go off this health food diet completely."

The wolf frowned at that. "I am making things more difficult for you," Jack said, unhappy at the thought, and Rico shrugged.

"You've been a pain in my ass for years, Jackie. Ain't no reason to stop now," the vampire teased, and then he grew abnormally serious, his smile falling from his face. "Listen, I probably shouldn't say this next part, so you do your best to keep it to yourself. That kid, she's gonna grow up fast, and we aren't supposed to grow. We aren't supposed to change, we aren't supposed to do nothing but stay just how we are. There's two halves to that girl, but one half…it don't like to share. A vampire isn't a wolf, Jack. We don't have a balance. We are or we aren't, that's all there is. She's a sweet kid, but she's got the potential to be dangerous. Real dangerous, to herself and others. You keep an eye on her, Jackie. Curlie-Q's a wild card, and those kids over there in that coven don't even know it."

Jack closed his eyes again, felt his imprint's excitement fading away to a quiet calmness, the calmness that usually meant that she would soon sleep. Sleep and leave him alone, and let the haze curl back around his mind. It was easier that way, but it had been easiest when he hadn't known the difference.

"You think that she wasn't supposed exist," Jack said quietly, feeling disturbed by his own words. He hadn't wanted this imprint, but he was tied to the child indefinitely, and as such had found himself slowly growing…attached. To have her exist was physically painful for him, but for her not to exist…it felt wrong. Deeply deeply wrong. She was Pack, and she was his, and she was supposed to exist. That was how it should be.

The ancestors disagreed, and they whispered that he should kill her. The spirits were still angry at his abandonment, at his betrayal. His dead Alpha was growling softly to push them, push them all away…

Rico's eyes had darkened to a deep brown color, but his shoulders loose and relaxed as he emptied the bucket of now cloudy salt water. "Are any of us supposed to exist?" Rico wondered, glancing over at the setting sun. "Has your life been worthwhile, Jackie? Has mine? So many years, doing the same things in the same ways, never learning, never changing…is this what our makers intended for any of us? For the living to kill the dead out of compulsion? For the dead to kill the living to survive? Wolf and leech, circling round and round, just waiting for our openings."

"It is how it has been, and is, and will be," Jack murmured quietly, and Rico gave him a sharp look.

"To hunt each other, to kill? It's fun, don't get me wrong, but it sure as hell ain't right. I've been around nearly as long as you have Jackie, and it doesn't change. At some point, morals stops mattering, they start blending into ambiguity. Good and evil, right and wrong, it's all the same, Jackie boy. No one made us, no one cares what we do. Either all of us were supposed to be, or none of us. Either way, we're all here, and only _we_ get the option of getting rid of each other. Maybe that's the fun part of life, having the instinctual drive to make more, and having the cruelty to destroy what we make."

Bitterness tinged the vampire's voice, and as the vampire's eyes turned black, Jack lay a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "That may be, but there is one who's foot was wrong, and you made it right again. And to her, it matters very much what you do."

Rico sighed and looked at the mare. She was standing easier now, and she flicked her ear at him again, still offended that he had insulted her size but thankful her foot no longer hurt as badly. The vampire chuckled and patted her neck. "Yeah…yeah I guess, so, huh? Gotta find the good in all things, don't you Jackie?"

"Not in all things, only the things that have good in them from the start," Jack murmured. "You are hungry, old friend, and it is because of me. Go, hunt, I'll finish up here," the ancient wolf said simply. And then he smiled. "I'll apologize to the spirits for you for your doubt in their wisdom. They are relentless when they are displeased."

Rico shot him a toothy grin, and laughed. "You do that. And up the feed for the geldings while you're at it. Moral ambiguity aside, they're getting pretty ribby."

Jack chuckled and went to untying the mare. Rico slipped out of the pasture, but then turned around. "Hey, Jackie?" Rico said, rubbing the back of his neck, looking apologetic. "Don't be surprised if one of these days you come back and I ain't here. It's nothing personal, but there's some things...some things even I have to get off my ass and do."

It was tempting to ask what he meant, but that wasn't their way, so Jack simply nodded. He had known one day it would be like that, although he had hoped that day wouldn't come anytime soon. To be honest, Jack wasn't exactly sure what had made his friend stay as long as he had. Another pull from his Alpha, this time quieter and intentional. Wincing slightly (beloved or not an Alpha pup was a little rough on them all), Jack phased and listened to what his Alpha had to say. As he always had. As he always would.

T'sikáti yawned and tucked his nose under his tail. If the fishhook thought he used to always listen to the fish, then Jack had a long way to go towards remembering.

* * *

Christmas was coming in a few days, and it only now occurred to Renesmee that she had never thought about what to give her wolf, had failed to plan the perfect gift. In utter dismay, Renesmee had realized that she was a very bad imprint indeed, but her parents promised her that it wasn't too late to think of something. They assured her that her wolf was imprinted on her, and wouldn't be picky, but Renesmee wasn't convinced.

Mister Jack was her wolf. Not just any Christmas present would do.

It had occurred to Renesmee that maybe her wolf was one of those people that had never gotten a Christmas present, even though he had Rico and he had his Pack. After all, her daddy had said that Rico was pretty unreliable and Jack was still very new to being Pack. So she thought and she thought about what the best present for a wolf like him could be, and it occurred to Renesmee that she had no clue. She could think of the things that _she_ enjoyed, like reading and reciting, poetry and listening to music. But her parents had taught her that when you got someone a gift, you had to keep what that person enjoyed in mind, and not simply give them what you would like to receive yourself.

In her lack of inspiration, the little girl went to her room and took down the gift that her wolf had given her when he had first imprinted. Her rock.

Renesmee's thoughts from yesterday were laid out on the floor still, she had forgotten to put them away before bed, which was something that she almost never did. But she had been distracted, she had missed her wolf deeply, and it had caused her to call Jacob. The Alpha had seemed almost as distracted as she was, but he had given her a good hour of his time, making her giggle with silly stories about Black family Christmases. Not all of the families on the rez celebrated Christmas, but Jacob's father had always made a big deal about cookie crumbs leading from their hung stockings and out the back door. As children, Jacob and Quil had snuck out one Christmas Eve and watched Jacob's father making pretend reindeer tracks in the snow before eating Santa's cookies himself. Apparently, when they had told Embry that Santa wasn't real, the older boy had burst into tears and refused to speak to them for a week.

The little imprint thought that Jacob and Quil were mean for ruining Christmas for Embry, and she chidingly told him so, and Jacob promised to never ruin Christmas for Embry by telling him Santa didn't exist, not ever again. Renesmee had giggled between her yawns and then Jacob had told her that he loved her, and that she sounded tired. When Jacob told her to go to sleep, it was hard not to do as the Alpha told her, and it had been a very good night's sleep. Renesmee had dreamed of snow falling and wolves padding through the forest all around her, and Santa touching his nose to a huge russet wolf's nose before giving them all candy canes.

Renesmee really liked candy canes.

She briefly considered giving her wolf a candy cane as she opened the small box that her rock was resting in, but then decided that a candy cane was tasty but that as a present for her wolf, it was sorely lacking. He was her first true forever friend, and that meant that she needed to find something better than hardened sugar products.

Renesmee took her rock out and looked at it. She had several times before, but never for very long. It was a small rock, a chunk that had been broken off of a larger one, and it had both a smooth side to it and a jagged one. The smooth side was almost soft to the touch, as if the elements had polished the grey surface to uniformity. The jagged break showed that veins of color layered through the rock, hidden before the break had happened. It was pretty, although Renesmee knew that there was more interesting chunks of river rock that could be found in the area. But she liked having something special just for her, so she pretended that it was the prettiest rock that anyone had ever found, and that now it belonged only to her. She played with the stone on her lap, rolling it between her fingers, and then standing in front of her bathroom mirror and holding it up to her forehead, like it was the stone for a simple circlet tiara, the kind that princesses wore.

She had been a dreaded Pirate Captain and a lovely Bubble Queen of Swan Lake, but Renesmee had never been a Princess before. So she carefully bound the rock with string and she tied it around her forehead, and she put on her yellow dress, because everyone knew that princesses always wore yellow. Renesmee's father came upstairs, looking very handsome in a tuxedo suit, and he bowed to her deeply. Would the Crown Princess Renesmee Carlie Cullen deign to dance with her father, Sir Edward of Forksbury?

Why yes, Sir Edward. The Crown Princess Renesmee Carlie Cullen would like that very much.

And so started the Princess's Ball, and all the lords and the ladies of the land joined in, and all the lords wanted to dance with the Crown Princess, even if Sir Emmett of Rosaland kept twirling her around so much that her tiara was slipping. Finally the Crown Princess's mother, Fair Bella of the Ball, carried the Crown Princess up to bed and tucked her in goodnight. As the Crown Princess blinked sleepily under her covers, she turned to her mother, who was holding a small rock tied with a piece of string in her hand.

"Mommy? What should I get Mister Jack for Christmas?" Renesmee asked, and Bella thought about it, even as she tucked the crown jewels back in the royal wooden vault.

"I'm not sure, Renesmee. Why don't you call Jacob so that you can ask him?"

Renesmee shook her head, a little shyly. "I want to, but it seems silly. I should know. I should know what the sky forgets too, but I don't know that either."

Bella smoothed a hand over her hair and gave Renesmee a small smile. "And why should you know, baby?"

"Because I'maimprintnow," the little girl slurred sleepily as snuggled against her mother's side, and Bella sighed softly. When the Crown Princess fell asleep, Bella tucked Renesmee in tighter, paused a moment to organize her daughter's thoughts into a stack on the dresser, and then she went downstairs. The Ball was still going in full swing, but Bella whispered to her husband that she was going to take a walk, and Edward nodded his understanding.

She waited until she was out of ear range before calling Jacob. Edward knew what Bella was doing but had chosen to stay at home with Renesmee, where he could keep an eye on her thoughts. Of his family, Edward felt the need to protect his daughter first and foremost with his wife a close second. Bella was no longer human now, and Edward didn't dog her steps the way that he once had when he had viewed her as fragile, breakable, vulnerable. He'd go looking for her if she didn't return in an hour or two, but he would give her time until then, so Bella walked around for a while, giving Jacob the time he had requested.

The Alpha was waiting for her when she reached the border, still in wolf form and stretched out on their side of the treaty line. It made Bella grin and shake her head.

"You always did like to break the rules, Jake," Bella said in her musical voice, turning her back politely as the wolf stood and gave a wide jawed yawn, before phasing back into his human form.

"And you always liked to obey them too much, Bells," the Alpha chuckled as he pulled on a pair of torn jeans. Bella didn't hear the zipper, and she waited, before finally clucking her tongue disapprovingly.

"I'm a married woman, Jake, please put your pants all the way on," Bella told him, and when he laughed at her in his low rumbling voice, she growled a little.

The Alpha finished clothing himself, and Bella turned around. She had known he would be shirtless but the Alpha had moved close enough that her nose was near his chest, and if Bella had still been human she would have blushed. Jake seemed to find this amusing as he gazed down on her. "Something wrong, Bells?" he snickered, and Bella snapped her teeth at him and pointed.

"Over there Jake, back on your side," she told him, and the Alpha laughed again when she kept her eyes trained on the trees slightly to the side of his face. Jake reached forward and gently dragged his knuckles along her jaw, bringing her eyes back to him.

"I miss your blush, Bells," Jake murmured softly, and then he sighed when she shifted slightly backwards and away from his touch. "Yeah, yeah, I know. My side of the border." The Alpha stuffed his hands in his pockets and took a few steps back. "Better?"

"Thank you, Jake," Bella said, looking relieved. "And thank you for arranging the meeting, although I hadn't expected you to be here too. Is he…?"

Jake nodded and took a couple steps before jumping lightly up on top of a car sized boulder. The Alpha settled easily, looking like a kid on a wall as he grinned easily at the vampire who he still considered his best friend. "Yeah, Jack's on his way. He had something to do, so it'll take him a few minutes."

"Something to do?" she asked looking a little annoyed, and Jake chuckled, his eyes shifting behind her.

"If my imprint had asked me to come, I would have come immediately, Cold One," a low voice said from behind her shoulder and Bella let out a yelp of surprise, spinning around and hissing instinctively. The wolf was only a few feet away, and Jack's only reaction was to close his eyes halfway, shielding his gaze beneath his lids. "For her, the world will wait. For the horses to be fed, you will wait."

"Be nice, Jack," Jake chuckled, looking amused. "If the world would have worked the way I wanted it to, you would have been answering to her, not Sims."

Bella watched the ancient wolf pad over to stand near Jake's rock, and Jack sank down to his heels submissively. Instead of leaving them be, Jake looked like he was settling in comfortably. Suddenly it occurred to her why exactly Jake was still there. "You're guarding me from him," Bella said in astonishment, and Jake smirked a little.

"Naw, Jack wouldn't hurt you, Bells." As she gazed at the wolf crouched on the ground, the one that was now watching her intently, Bella wasn't so sure. Jake seemed to sense her discomfort and he slid off his rock, resting a hand lightly on Jack's shoulder. "Why would he hurt you, Bella? It would hurt Nessie, and that would hurt him even more."

"She is young, Alpha," Jack said softly, once more hiding his gaze with lidded eyes. He would lower his eyes for his Pack, would flatten himself for Jake, but Bella was pretty sure that she had never seen him actually lower his eyes for them. "She is young, as is most of her coven, and it is their instincts that make them wary of me. It is understandable."

"You imprinted on my daughter," Bella said, putting as much strength as she could in her voice. "That's enough to make me wary of you. And Edward is a hundred years old, Jack. I'd hardly call that young."

The wolf didn't move, didn't look at her differently, didn't even make a noise, but for some reason Bella felt as if he was amused by her. Jake must have felt the same way, because he growled a little protectively, and Jack shifted down to his knees, head lowered even more submissively than before. That submission bothered Bella on some fundamental level, a place that still lingered in her psyche, the by-product of being human and being friends with Jake before he had phased.

It bothered her that someone that came this close to frightening her entire coven was frightened into abject subservience to Jacob, her sun, her best friend. That was just…_wrong_.

"What do you need of me, mother of my imprint?" Jack asked quietly, his voice formal sounding, probably to appease Jake. Jack had never referred to any of their names, only by the ancient Quileute term for vampires, the Cold Ones.

"Renesmee wants to know what you want for Christmas," Bella said, a little exasperated. "It's all she can think about, besides that sky/dirt riddle you gave her, but she's too scared to ask you."

Jack's eyes snapped up and then narrowed, as if she had insulted him deeply. "If my imprint is _frightened_ of me, it is not of _my_ doing, Cold One," he growled and despite herself Bella took a step back.

"That's not what she meant, Jack," Jake said easily, tapping the older wolf's shoulder with his thumb and once again causing Jack's head to dip downwards submissively. "Bells kinda sucks with words. What she meant is that Nessie is shy, which you already know."

"She is _not _frightenedof me," Jack repeated in a soft voice, as if this was a major issue for him, major enough that he would risk upsetting Jake by repeating it. Bella could hear Jack's teeth grinding together in frustration despite his relaxed muscles.

"No, but she _is_ frightened of disappointing you, Jack," Bella said, shaking her head. "Renesmee was bad enough with Jake and Seth, trying so hard to make them like her, but with you she's ten times worse. Did you know that she spends hours every day reading everything she can on Pacific Northwest indigenous culture just so that if you do say something to her, that she won't embarrass you by her ignorance? Did you know that she picks out her outfits to wear around you days in advance? Did you know that she _runs_ to the phone just in case you, someone who doesn't even have a phone, is calling her? Jack, she views your imprinting as her chance to finally have her own friend, and she's terrified of messing it up."

"Then maybe you guys should have let her have friends these last couple years, Bells," Jake said drolly, and Bella turned her exasperation Jake's way.

"With who, Jake? _Who_? It's not safe, and as much as I want my daughter to have friends, as much as I know it's stunting her growth, I also know how sensitive she is about hurting things. And for the record, next time don't bring a child to our house without warning us first. Are you insane, Jacob? Bringing a child to the house of a…"

Bella realized what she was saying and closed her mouth, but Jake and Jack were watching her with matching expressions of intensity. "To the house of what, Bella?" Jake asked, his brow furrowing as if he was trying to see through her.

"It doesn't matter. Listen, Jake. Edward and I trust you, and we want to trust Jack too. We do," she said, turning her eyes to the older, smaller wolf. "For two months you've been playing by the rules, Jack, and Renesmee is happier now." Bella paused, her face scrunching up. "It took us by surprise at first, but thus far Renesmee has seemed to be doing well, although it worries us how nearly obsessive she is when it comes to you. But I was always accepting of Jake being Pack, and Quil imprinting on Claire, and all of it. I was Edward's _singer_," Bella added. "I know how dangerous seeming bonds can end up being the best thing that could happen to you."

Jake gave her a look that bordered between sympathy and pity. "Are you still telling yourself that, Bells?" he asked softly, and Bella had the distinct impression that Jack was growing uncomfortable, for all that he didn't move.

"I'm not arguing this with you again, Jake," Bella said firmly. "The point is that I want Renesmee to be happy, and if being imprinted on will mean that, then we're not completely unwilling to accept this. But Jack, you have to understand how easy it is for Renesmee to get hurt by your reactions to her, and Edward and I won't allow you to be around her more unless we know for a fact you won't disappoint her."

Jack shivered and said something to Jake in Quileute, a harsh string of words that made Bella close her eyes and Jake growl again lightly. "Never mind," she sighed, sounding tired as she turned to go. "If you won't work with us, then things stay as they are."

"I said that it is an _insult_ to have a _Cold One_ instruct me in the ways of my people, in the ways of treating my Packmates and my own imprint," Jack said in his rough voice. "It is an insult to have one such as you expect anything from one such as me."

"This from a wolf that _lives_ with a vampire," Bella said, exasperated again. "If anyone of your Pack should be accepting of us, it should be you."

"That Cold One has earned my respect and loyalty despite what he is," Jack replied, eyes once again half-lidded and his tone smoothing at Jake's narrowed eyes. "Not because of it. You are a Cold One, and worse still, one that became so willingly. If you had not been the mother of my imprint, I would not have come at all."

For as many times as Bella had heard similar disgust in Jacob's voice, it still annoyed her to here. Really, did no one understand the decisions that she had made? "So you won't work with us, not even for Renesmee," Bella said flatly, disappointed, and the wolf tipped his head slightly. He was quiet for a while, and then he exhaled.

"I won't shame my Alpha and my brothers and sister by cowering and licking at the feet of an enemy," Jack replied quietly. "I won't abase myself to earn your favor. However, I would wish…I would wish to see her more. If she would wish it too."

Bella nodded, saying, "Yes, Jack. She does. And we're willing to see how it goes, as long as you continue to behave with the level of restraint you've shown so far. Although a little more respect might be nice," she added drolly. "If you want to come by more often, Edward and I decided that two or three times a week would be okay."

"Once a week," Jack responded firmly. "Unsupervised. And when you are finally satisfied I am not threat to her, I will come and go as I please."

Bella never had been good at bargaining, so she frowned, glancing to Jake for help. "He's saying that either you trust him or you don't, Bells," Jake supplied. "It's not about hours in the day, it's about if he can be around her or if he can't. "

"Edward won't agree to that," Bella muttered unhappily. "I'm sorry Jack, we just…we just don't know you."

"You have never tried."

His words were soft, and Bella grew quiet at them, her vampire self held still. Finally she nodded, expression fierce. "One time, Jack, one time with Edward within range to hear Renesmee's thoughts. And if you do anything to upset her, or anything to hurt her, then you will never set eyes on her again. That is if we let you live. Do you understand?"

The ancient wolf just looked at her, and then nodded acceptance. He glanced at his Alpha, and when Jake nodded ever so slightly, Jack rose and turned to go.

"Jack, wait," Bella said in her chiming voice. "What do you want for Christmas?"

Jack frowned and said firmly, "I require nothing from my imprint. She is a child."

"A child that wants to get you something for Christmas, Jack," Bella reminded him.

Jack walked a few steps away, and then he paused, his eyes drifting to the night sky above as a small smile curved his lips. "Then she should get me a star, for there are many for her to choose from, and she may take her pick. You may assure her that I like them all." With that, the ancient wolf slipped away, ignoring Bella's look of disgusted frustration. Jacob Black simply laughed and reached out so that he could ruffle her hair.

"That's Jack," the Alpha chuckled. "You might as well get used to it, Bells. He may be your son-in-law one day."

Bella didn't find that funny, not in the least bit, not at all. And the shit of it was that vampire or not, this time when Bella punched Jake, her small fist still didn't do a damn bit of good. The Alpha was still laughing as Bella stomped away, back to the life she had chosen over him, back to the only way of life she knew.

* * *

It was snowing when the child awoke.

Renesmee woke up thirsty, so very thirsty that it felt as if something had taken claws to her throat and was shredding her from the inside out. The thirst only lasted for a few moments, because that was as long as it took for her mother and father to her cry of pain, for them to scoop her up and to dart into the forest, and for them to hunt the nearest thing for her to eat. Renesmee hated to kill, she _hated_ it, so the tawny colored doe was already glassy eyed when her father set it in front of her, the half-vampire child falling across its broken neck like a creature starving.

As it always did when Renesmee was forced to feed off something living or freshly dead, the pain in her throat almost instantly softened into a small tickle. Cups of blood were okay, but to take away the agony of the thirst, a fresh kill was always best. Pulling away from the doe, the little girl burst into tears. Sometimes it felt as if the things she wanted to be, she would never be, the things everyone else took for granted. She didn't want to be a killer, she just wanted to be her. Renesmee. Whoever that person was supposed to be.

Renesmee tried to not feel as if she had done something wrong as she stared at the doe, an animal only moments ago that was alive and living as it was meant to be. She was a predator and predators killed, but she was also a child and she didn't want to be a murderer. Just because her father carried the doe away as soon as she was finished didn't mean she couldn't still see, and feel, and know what she had done. What if the doe had babies like the raccoon had? What gave her the right to take its life to save her own? What if someone killed _her_ mother, and Renesmee had to be all alone? What if…?

Her mind rolled round and round, her insides brittle and shattering into so many different directions. Renesmee's tears fell to the ground as Bella held her in cool arms, crooning softly that she was okay. And it was only then that Renesmee finally knew what the hìtkwotalítali sky had forgotten. The patient earth was always there, and would always catch the sky's tears, and would always soak them up and take them away. The earth would do the same for Renesmee as well, even though she had never noticed until now. This gave her courage, realizing that the earth had been a silent friend all along, and the little girl sniffed and wiped her face, not wanting to trouble it any further.

She would do better. She would learn not to cry, not to care about the lives that she had to take, she would force herself to be stronger. She _promised_. As her father cringed and her mother murmured words of comfort, off in the distance an old wolf raised his brindle muzzle to the darkened heavens.

And so the moon paused in her dance with the sun, and the forgotten sky's tears ceased, and for a single moment all the spirits of the world were still. Heartsick and alone, the wolf sang for them all.


	11. Chapter 9

A/N So this is a pretty mellow chapter and I enjoyed writing it immensely. :) Thanks to my beta _TheNotoriousLIP_, who becomes more awesome on a daily basis, and also thanks to the reviewers from the last chapter: _shelbron, fallunder, moani-sama, Aleena Kiwiana, EssaTheTwerp, KerryH, MadToTheBone1, cylobaby, 82c10akaLynn, The all mighty and powerfulM, dirtychicken, Amandaforks, hilja, eskimogirl58, katieklutz, Elvira Iula, lauarazuleta18, Buffyk0604, TheNotoriousLIP, EnglishVoice, MargotTenser, Britt01, scrapalicious, chicadee74, toalli, RTNNC10, WorldsAngel, _and_ lionandthelamblove7_. Also, anyone who's interested is welcome to participate in the **Seth Clearwater Valentine's Day Challenge** I'm holding on my lj. The more the merrier! Drop by there for information or feel free to pm me. Later gators! ~Mel

_**Hach awí_ = "Good evening", _Alilà-cha'_ = "What are you doing?"

_**Xwpá_ = "In a while", and _Xáxi_ = "Now"

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Nine

_It took three winters and much effort, but in the end, Qa'al finally thawed Tuktukadi's heart._

_She had been the biggest challenge he had ever faced in his very long life. For every step forward he had taken in earning her affection, she had fled ten steps backwards, masking her fear with pride and scorn. For every kindly offered word or helping hand from Qa'al to make her more comfortable, Tuktukadi had proudly refused, insisting on making her own and more difficult way within their tribe. She would flee and he would chase her. He would forget to chase her, lost in the more complicated matters of protecting and guiding his people, and she would return to his side, frustrated and confused by her need to shoulder his troubles when he frightened her so. _

_It was a dance between them, well-rehearsed and comfortable, but in the darkness of the nights, the steps started changing. At first she had lay stiffened next to him, aware that without body heat that the cold of winter would sink too deep into her veins. But as the winters faded into the warmth of summers and cooled again into the colorful falls, in his arms Tuktukadi had remained. _

_By their fourth winter, the nights had grown long and deliciously sweet, with delicate fingers reaching for him again and again as the owl learned to trust the wolf that had so cleverly hunted her, to be caged within his jaws and know no more fear. He loved the way she looked beneath him, above him, tangled up alongside him, but he loved even more hearing her speak. When their lovemaking was over, Tuktukadi would place her head on his chest, her thick dark hair falling across his torso, and in her rich voice she would tell him the stories of her people. Qa'al had known of the Makah, so long an enemy of the Kwòlíyoť, but from her lips he learned of their lives and their legends and their proud ways of living. She told him of the Nuu-chal-nulth, the many closely tied nations beyond Makah lands, and how it was Nuu-chal-nulth blood that flowed through some of her people's veins. And when she was done, he told her of Q'wati the Transformer and of Taha Aki the Spirit Warrior and of Utlapa the Betrayer. He told her of the Tlokwali and of T'sikáti, and the importance of an Alpha amongst their people. _

_And when he knew that his heart was safe with her, Qa'al told Tuktukadi of himself. _

_The Makah were their enemies, but to him, Qa'al's little owl was anything but that. As strong-willed as a she-wolf and as brave as their Alpha, Tuktukadi was a woman who insisted on holding her own with him, and it was only for such a woman that could Qa'al fall. She belonged to his Alpha, T'sikáti's slave, but it was at Qa'al side she stayed and held herself aloof from the people who so deeply disliked and distrusted her. Though it only earned her hardship and scorn, she stood her ground and refused to pay anyone but her brother, Qa'al, and T'sikáti any mind. _

_They said that she was a witch, that she had filled their Qa'al's mind with her own words, poison laced with honey on her tongue, to which Qa'al only laughed. As many times as that tongue had scathed him, Qa'al was certain that Tuktukadi was no witch, she was just a fiery woman that he was claiming as his, at least when she finally came around to accepting him as such. And when the time came that the cold chill on her heart had been warmed away by Qa'al's attentive care, Tuktukadi softened to him completely. For Qa'al even the finest honey had never tasted so sweet on his lips. She was his equal, his lover, and his friend. Lost in her body and her arms, Qa'al found something that he had never been able to find in so many long years of life. _

_Qa'al found someone he wanted to die with._

_He'd been thinking on the matter these last several decades, his and T'sikáti's readiness to live out the rest of their lives in peace. They had done their parts, and it was time to let the younger of the Tlokwali take their places. Maybe it was timing, his only being ready to find her at the time when she had come into his life. Perhaps Qa'al had been waiting for Tuktukadi all along. All Qa'al knew was that in lying in his longhouse, T'sikáti at one end and he at another, their lovers in their arms and the quietness of the night surrounding them, that he was the happiest he could ever remember being. _

_T'sikáti's woman was a she-wolf, one that was half as old as they were, one that had recently decided to stop with the change, and already the age lines were starting to crinkle the corners of her brown eyes. But she was a cheerful woman who was prone to laughing and teasing as she lay with their Alpha, and T'sikáti seemed content to be with her and her alone. These days T'sikáti had grown quiet, contemplative, and often a bit saddened by troubles that he would never speak of, not even to Qa'al. But it was rare that the Alpha would stray far from his friend's side, and it was in comfort and companionship that the four spent their days and their nights. _

_The Beta had grown strong and competent and was capable of guiding the Tlokwali without their constant presence, so T'sikáti and Qa'al would often slip away, their lovers at their sides, far beyond the borders of their own lands. Swifter than the elk or the deer, they would sprint in races across the earth, female laughter in their ears and slender arms wrapped around their necks as they ran. Deep in the lands of the Hoh people, Qa'al would lay Tuktukadi down in the soft thick grasses, his lips softer still as he brushed them over her skin. With enough time and attention his little owl would fly, even if she never took wing, and Qa'al was content to watch her as she wandered naked beneath the sun and his protective gaze, her hands skimming the waist tall grasses as she cast smiles his way. She was his. She softened only for him, whispered her heart only to him, and allowed herself to love only him. _His_. _

_Here, at what he believed to be the sunset of his long and rarely tranquil life, Qa'al truly knew peace._

_It was late summer when they had stolen away to be alone, nearly five years after their meeting, and Tuktukadi had spent the day planting an apple tree sapling in the soft black dirt beneath her fingertips. Qa'al had found it endearing how particular she was about the sapling's placement and how diligent she was in asking the spirit of the earth to let it grow and thrive. When she was finally content with her planting, Qa'al pressed his body to hers and whispered in her ear his love and his affection and his desires for her. Pleased with her lover and her mate, Tuktukadi had pulled Qa'al closer, breaking away only long enough to laugh at his teasing and his games._

_They stayed there for a full moon, Qa'al fishing and hunting to feed them, while Tuktukadi guarded her sapling and fed it water from the rivers from her cupped palms. It would be a Makah tree, she declared with a smile, and grow stronger than any Quileute tree Qa'al had ever known. Qa'al often settled next to the sapling and told it Quileute stories, trying to lure it away from his mate, who in retribution for an old wolf whispering secrets to a tree, spent her time weaving silly things from plaited cedar strips for them to wear. By the time they returned to his village, the owl's wing tucked into the wolf's paw, Qa'al's child was growing in her belly._

_The Tlokwali had few secrets from each other, and Qa'al's joy had been rolling through their bonded souls for days. So it was that T'sikáti called a meeting of them all together, those who were Tlokwali, and it was on the highest cliffs of their home that they met. Here was the most sacred place of their people, a place to request guidance and strength from the spirits, a place of beginnings and also of ends. It was here that the freshly changed Qa'al had first joined the Tlokwali, the fishhook so desperate to follow the fish on his life journey. It was here that the fishhook would bid the fish goodbye and finally start a journey of his own._

_The fire had been built high that night, something very important was to happen, and as the Tlokwali gathered around in a loose circle, it was no surprise to any of them that their Qa'al padded forward on bare silent feet and knelt before their Alpha. T'sikáti's eyes gleamed in the firelight, reflecting the passing of an era that had been for them and them alone, but there was no regret. Their journey had been good, and best because it had been made together._

_His voice throbbing in respect and such deep love, Qa'al kept his eyes dropped in abnormal submissiveness as he spoke the ritualistic words that he had never thought he'd say without T'sikáti saying them first. "I wish to leave the Tlokwali, Alpha," Qa'al said softly. "I wish to be called brother no more."_

_The fish gazed upon the fishhook and then pressed his hand to Qa'al's neck. The action carried with it the burden that belonged to the Alphas, a burden that Qa'al had been thankful he had never had to share. Some that wished to no longer be Tlokwali did so to become old, to tend nets and families and lives beyond that of the wolves. But some wished for a quicker passing from this life to the next, and it was their right to ask the Alpha to grant them that passing. _

_An Alpha could not refuse. _

_Qa'al had seen his oldest friend take four of their lives in the past five centuries, four lives that still rested on T'sikáti's heart to this day. Two that knew they were losing control of their wolf spirits and had bravely requested the right to die with dignity. One, an imprint who had survived the passing of her wolf, a wolf killed by the Cold Ones in an accident that should never have happened. Her pain had been too great and the bond between herself and the Tlokwali had been too little to soothe her suffering. And one other, the father of the wolf that had been killed, Tlokwali himself and shamed by his inability to protect his own. _

_Of all the parts of being Tlokwali Alpha, T'sikáti hated this the most. Even though he knew better, the Alpha's voice was still soft, quieted from the possibility that he would have to take one of his own today. "Why do you ask this, brother?"_

_T'sikáti should have known better. Qa'al would readily wound himself before ever inflicting upon his Alpha such pain. The Third risked breaking tradition, something he had been doing for centuries, and he grinned up at his friend with pride. "Tuktukadi is pregnant, T'sikáti. I am to be a _father_."_

_It was Qa'al's first open declaration of such, and the Beta threw back his head and let out a joyous yipping cry, the rest of the Tlokwali raising their voices in response. Their Qa'al was nearly as loved as their Alpha, and his good fortune was felt and shared by them all. A single young wolf raised his voice a second time, because his joy was twice that of his brothers. Qa'al laughed, a carefree sound despite the tears beginning to well in his eyes. It wasn't often that one left the life that they had always known, and set themselves upon a path to finally live and to finally die. _

_"I wish to grow old with her," Qa'al admitted to his Alpha, a small smile still curving his lips. "I wish to grow fat and wise, and when I am too bent and weak, I will be content to make the rest of you do my hunting and fishing for me."_

_"And if I say no, old friend?" T'sikáti asked softly, his hand still on Qa'al's neck. "If I asked that you stayed this journey with me to the end?"_

_"Then I would say that wolf or man, I will always stay with you until _my_ end," Qa'al murmured back in a voice thick with suppressed emotion, feeling his tears begin to slip unbidden from his eyes. "But I have found the mate that I have always wanted, and the child that no other woman has given me. I have been this long in waiting for them, my friend, and I do not want to live without them after they pass. I have lived as Tlokwali, as one with my wolf spirit, and he is content with my decision. We have agreed that it is time to live and die as the man."_

_Silence descended as they awaited T'sikáti's answer, for it would only be with the aid of an Alpha that one such as Qa'al could transition away from the need to phase. Finally T'sikáti grinned and hauled Qa'al to his feet, the Alpha throwing his arm around Qa'al's shoulders as he grinned. "May Q'wati save us if your son is anything like you, old friend. You may leave the Tlokwali, Qa'al, with my help and my blessing, but you will be called my brother always."_

_Qa'al laughed and then unable to contain himself he raised his face to the sky. It is said that the night Qa'al gave up his place among the Tlokwali, it was not just the voice of his own wolf spirit that joined him in song. They say that it was the voice of the ages, of the endless spirits their Qa'al had always been guided by that echoed in his cry. It is said that there had never been a sound like it before, and that there has never been a sound like it since._

_Finally he lowered his face and turned to the rest of the gathered. "It will take me several years to do this thing," Qa'al admitted to them, understanding the difficulty of that which he had chosen. Then he grinned cheerfully. "When I am done, I suppose I will have to find another name."_

_Tuktukadi's brother had been silent until now, being of low rank in their grouping, but as Qa'al's eyes turned onto him, he stepped close and gave Qa'al a look of such loyalty that it made them all take note. _

_"When you are no longer Qa'al, I will call you kin and brother as well," he declared fiercely, taking his place at Qa'al's side. "If anyone takes issue with this, he is welcome to challenge _me_." _

_The kid glared at them all, including T'sikáti, and the Alpha barked out a laugh. _

_"The pup has spoken, Qa'al," T'sikáti grinned. "Perhaps in these last few years you should take him under your wing, to teach him to cut his teeth. He has much still to learn and our Beta will be busy," T'sikáti added, his expression passing from one of regret to one of resolve, and then finally to one of peace. _

_The greatest Alpha their tribe had known since Taha Aki laughed softly and then turned to the Beta, where he stood with an arm draped comfortably over one of their she-wolves' shoulders. To the Beta's shock, their Alpha did as Qa'al had done, kneeling before the younger wolf that had always crouched at his feet. And for the first time that any of them had seen, T'sikáti lowered his eyes. _

_His voice thrummed with impatience, as if this had been started and the Alpha wished to have it over and done with. "I wish to leave the Tlokwali," T'sikáti said in his powerful voice, filled with an authority that they had all bent beneath for their lifetimes. "I wish to be called Alpha and brother no more." His voice softened as he looked up at the Beta's face. "It will take your strength and your help to allow me to do this thing, for I have been Alpha for a very long time."_

_The Beta was stunned, and as he stood there, the Tlokwali about them shifted restlessly. Their Alpha and their Qa'al had always worked as one, and it wasn't so much a shock that it was happening, as it was the shock that came with the knowledge that it was happening _right now_. Finally the Beta stepped forward, placing his hand on his Alpha's neck, despite how obviously hard it was for him to do so. Instead of becoming defensive and aggressive, as Alpha's were so wont to do, T'sikáti allowed his muscles to relax and grow soft beneath the threat. _

_"Why do you ask this, brother?" the Beta whispered, and Qa'al could see that the younger wolf had tears in his eyes. _

_T'sikáti smiled and then glanced at Qa'al. "Because I have been an Alpha, and a leader, and a wolf. For now, I wish to simply be a friend, and like Qa'al, I wish to grow old and content. Perhaps I too will find a woman to love, although my choice in women has always been much easier on my ears and my nerves than our Qa'al's taste seems to be."_

_Qa'al barked out a laugh at that, and the two shared a grin. He would never have asked, but Qa'al's wish had been for this, and already it seemed as if a weight had been lifted from T'sikáti's shoulders. Like Qa'al, it would take several years for T'sikáti to stop phasing, and he would hold the title of Alpha until that day, but starting this moment, this new journey for the fish and the fishhook had begun. _

_The Tlokwali were dazed, because it was not often that an Alpha left their ranks. And as the openly weeping Beta accepted T'sikáti's request, his Alpha rising to comfort him, the young wolf at Qa'al's side sniffed. The training of this one, a wolf that would soon be a true brother of Qa'al's, had been T'sikáti's final request, one that Qa'al accepted easily. He had always liked the pup anyways. _

_Qa'al watched the pup's face scrunch up angrily, looking furious and embarrassed with himself as he tried to hold back tears. The old wolf laughed and bumped their shoulders. "Don't worry," Qa'al said kindly. "This is a good day. The best of days." _

_The pup nodded and muttered, "I know…Are you really going to teach me, Qa'al?" _

_The old wolf nodded, and then gave him a teasing smile. "Yes, brother and soon to be kin. I will teach you everything I know, not that there is much of it. Old wolves like me tend to forget the things we have seen, especially when there are naps to be taken." The pup didn't look convinced, and Qa'al sighed. This one was as serious as Tuktukadi, although Qa'al figured if he had won her over, had brought a smile finally to her lips, than he would find a way to do the same with the pup. _

_As the Tlokwali pushed around their Alpha, needing the comfort and reassurance that came with that contact, the pup stayed back at Qa'al side. His loyalty had been cast, and with Qa'al it would stay. Affection tempered with understanding meant that the arm around the pup's shoulders was well placed. _

_"Like I said, this is a good day, so stop looking like a little black thundercloud," Qa'al said quietly, and then he grinned and gave the pup a playful shake. "Be cheerful, brother, or I might start having to call you 'Tupkuk' from now on." The pup rolled his eyes at that, but too many heard and decided it fit their newest wolf far too well. 'Tupkuk' the half Makah youth remained. _

_And so it was that the one who would lead the Tlokwali to their banishment was finally named, and it was Qa'al, the most ill-fated of their people, who named him. _

* * *

It was Christmas Eve. Renesmee knew this for a fact because she was wearing her antlers.

The Renesmee Carlie Cullen Christmas Antler tradition had been started by her mother, who had bought the pair of headband antlers on a whim on Renesmee's first Christmas because Bella had thought that they were cute. Bella hated clothes shopping so much that it was a rarity that anything in Renesmee's closet actually was picked out by her mother, and so Renesmee was very fond of those antlers. They were tall and sparkly brown, and the left one drooped a little because Jacob and Leah had spent much of last Christmas season bending it to look "gangsta".

After having done an appropriate amount of research on the topic, Renesmee was relatively sure that she could never be gangsta. After all, her Aunt Alice was very careful to make sure that her clothing fit, and little girls weren't allowed to be "packing" until they were older.

In effort to be more culturally aware, Renesmee had attempted to bring her newly found knowledge of urban linguistic trends into a discussion at the Christmas Eve dinner table, but as it often did, her efforts weren't particularly rewarded. Her mother had been appalled, her father had sent her to her room for an hour to "de-research" herself, and her Uncle Emmett was still talking about the time that Renesmee referred to her Aunt Rose as having "street cred". But they had let her keep her floppy antler ears, which Renesmee liked very much indeed.

She had waited until yesterday to put them on because they were floppier than normal and Renesmee was pretty sure that after this year, she was going to need new ones. So the little girl put on her most reindeer- esque outfit, a brown satin sheath dress, and because she was feeling more playful than she had the previous year, Renesmee tied the bow on backwards so that she could have a tail. Her Uncle Jasper helped her use some of the face paint left over from when Jacob had taken her as a butterfly for Christmas, and she may not have been Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, but Renesmee was quite content to be one of the other, more normal flying reindeer that pulled Santa's sleigh.

Renesmee had been playing pretend more than she used to, but she rarely allowed herself the luxury of playing that she was normal. It just seemed…too farfetched for her to comfortably maintain the game.

It wasn't nearly as hard as the Bubble Queen of Swan Lake would have thought to become Dancer the Reindeer, although she had eaten enough Christmas cookies that night that she was living up more to Dasher's namesake, darting about and handing out everyone their masses of Christmas presents. They always seemed to have a lot of people in their home on Christmas Day, so Christmas Eve had become a private affair. Between Bella's family spending the day, her grandfather's co-workers dropping by with gifts, and the usual trio of Alpha, Beta, and she-wolf coming in to lay savage waste to the masses of Christmas treats that the vampires never consumed, Christmas Day itself was far too hectic. It had become easier to open their presents in the relative quietness of Christmas Eve, and as everyone enjoyed a nice glass of blood to toast in the holidays, Renesmee finally managed to settle down enough to curl up against her grandmother's side and look at her Christmas gifts.

There were a lot of them. Sometimes Renesmee wondered if there were too many.

"Did you have a good Christmas, Nessie?" her Aunt Alice asked, where the tiny vampire was happily tucked into Uncle Jasper's arms. "Did you get everything you wanted?"

Not even her father could have answered that for her because her mother had placed a shield on everyone's thoughts tonight for his comfort. It was family time only, and Edward was relaxed as he stretched out on the floor, blissfully content with his head resting in Bella's lap.

"If she didn't, then we'll have to build on to the cottage before she gets anything else," Edward chuckled fondly, looking at the heaps of gifts around Renesmee's end of the couch. "We're going to start running out of storage space."

"Yes, thank you, Aunt Alice," Renesmee replied happily, beaming at her family. "Thank you everyone, Mommy, Daddy. I like everything very much." And she did, too. She might like some things more than others, but she knew that it was important to be appreciative of the blessings one was given in life.

"You're welcome, honey," Esme told her warmly, cold arms wrapping around her lovingly. "You were a very good reindeer," Esme added, winking at her, and Renesmee giggled before picking up one of the many new books she had received.

It was a history book, one about the Pacific Northwest, a subject that the little girl had been constantly researching these days. She flipped through the first couple pages and stopped at one. It was a sketched picture of an indigenous man from the early sixteen hundreds, although it said that he was Klallam in origin instead of Quileute. There were a lot of tribes in this area, there had been even more that had not survived the coming of the Europeans and their diseases, and she often had to call Jacob or Seth to ask them to explain the differences. This was a rough sketch, but the artist had captured the expression on the Native American man's face well, so serious and solemn. Here was a man watching the world that he had always known slipping away from him, and that loss was etched into the lines in his face, the hurt in his eyes.

Renesmee knew that her Pack were obviously Native American, but she had never seen this look on their faces. Exhaustion and regret, yes, and the wisdom that came with experiences far beyond their years, but not this deep longing pain. But Renesmee had seen something close to it, just once she had seen someone look like they had lost everything. It had been the expression in her wolf's eyes the day he had imprinted on her and ran, when she had crawled beneath that fern to find him. He'd had that look as he had crouched trembling and scared until Jack had shut his canine eyes, right before she had touched his nose. It was only then that his expression had changed, but she didn't know him well enough yet to know why.

"Grandpa?" Renesmee suddenly asked, hearing a lull in the soft conversation that surrounded her. "What were the original wolves like?"

Carlisle had been standing near the fireplace, watching the flickering of the flames with a thoughtful expression, but at her words he looked up. She could have asked her father, or really any of her coven with the exception of Alice, Jasper, or her mother. All of them had been around the first time the Cullens had come to Forks, but Renesmee kept her eyes on her grandfather. It was Carlisle who had negotiated the treaty with Ephraim Black two generations ago, and as the patriarch of their coven, it only seemed right to ask him. The blonde vampire's face smoothed and he smiled at her.

"I assume you're speaking of the first of the Quileute Pack that we encountered, Nessie?" Carlisle asked and Renesmee nodded. Her grandfather took a sip of his glass of blood and considered his words. "They were...reserved," Carlisle said, remembering. "Jacob's grandfather, Ephraim, was the Alpha. You could see that he was very uncomfortable approaching us. I think he realized that they were outnumbered, and that made him very concerned. If we would have fought, we had five bodies to their three. With Edward and Esme and I, and then Rose and Emmett, the wolves would have lost. We would have taken damages, but in the end, they would have lost."

It was hard to know what she would do if it ever came down to that in her lifetime. Of course she loved her family, and she would support them fully. But to have to fight the Pack, it just seemed…unfathomable.

"Why do you ask, Nessie?" Carlisle wanted to know, and her family watched as she struggled for her answer. She gazed at the book in her lap, at the expression on the Klallam brave's face, and she ran her finger down the man's cheek. How long had this sketch taken to do? How often had this man sat in his pain?

"Renesmee? Your grandfather asked you a question," Bella reminded her gently, so Renesmee stood and went to Carlisle. She put her palm on his arm, and after a moment he nodded.

"I understand," Carlisle smiled, resting a hand on her bronze curls. "You wonder if those wolves were more like your Jack then Jacob's Pack is, and that maybe knowing more about them will help you understand Jack better. Did I get that right?" He tugged her antler playfully and then smiled when she nodded.

"Yes, Grandpa."

Esme shared a look with Carlisle and then sat up a little straighter in her seat, saying, "I think, sweetheart, that Ephraim Black's Pack came after a very major event in American history. I think that a lot of who the Quileute people once were has become lost, and that even people like Jacob have to work at maintaining their culture. Even two generations ago the people were still two more generations removed from that time. You would have to go back further than Ephraim Black to find the answers you're looking for."

"Remember that a person is always changing, Nessie, even ones like us who are made to stay the same," her Uncle Jasper told her in his quiet melodic voice. "If you are fortunate those changes are for the better."

He smiled at Alice, and his wife snuggled closer to him. It was common knowledge in the family that Jasper had not always been the kind of vampire that the Cullens prided themselves on being, and he had been absent more than not recently as Renesmee struggled with her thirst, a thirst that never failed to weaken the control of his own. But Renesmee felt good tonight, and Jasper was relaxed, and they all seemed quite happy just to be together.

"What Jasper means is that the person Jack is now isn't necessarily the person he was a long time ago, honey," Bella explained, running her fingers through Edward's hair. "Sometimes it's better just to ask someone who they are, then to try and scrutinize them from every angle."

There was quietness, followed by a snicker and a cough of 'bullshit' from Emmett, and Bella would have blushed if she had still been human.

"Be quiet Emmett," Bella growled. "I'm her mother so I'm allowed to scrutinize the wolf that imprinted on her as much as I want," she muttered defensively, and the huge vampire chuckled from the seat he shared with Rosalie.

"Naw, Bella, you just don't like him because he doesn't like you and doesn't pretend to," Emmett chuckled. "You're just not used to people not liking you."

"_Excuse_ me?" Bella said, a little affronted, and Renesmee watched her father sigh in annoyance.

"Emmett, it was all going so _well_," Edward murmured as he began to rub his head, feigning he had a headache, and the little girl giggled when her Uncle Emmett winked at her. Emmett always did like getting Bella worked up, although Renesmee was sure he must be mistaken. Her wolf was the nicest, most understanding wolf that was in the Pack. Of course Jack would like her mother very much.

"I…I _don't_ need people to like me," Bella insisted, and this time Rose snorted, causing Bella's eyes to widen. "I _don't_!" she growled, her fangs showing slightly. "Edward! Tell them!"

"You _were_ the one that stood in front of a fan the day we met, Bella," Edward grinned up at her cheekily, earning himself a punch in the arm that would have shattered a brick wall.

"It's okay, Mommy, I like it when people like me too," Renesmee tried to cheer her mother up, and as her words often did, they had the opposite of her desired effect. Instead Jasper and Emmett started laughing as Bella growled louder at them and Alice started lecturing everyone to be nice because it was Christmas Eve. The phone rang, and Renesmee touched her grandfather's arm again, silently asking for permission. Carlisle was smiling at his coven, but he turned that smile Renesmee's way.

"Of course, Nessie," he said. "It's probably for you anyways." The thought made her grin, she liked it when people called for her, so Dancer the Reindeer skipped into the kitchen and hurried to pick up Santa's phone. You know, just in case he was lost and needed directions.

Renesmee didn't recognize the number, so she placed the phone to her ear and said as politely as she could, "Cullen residence, Renesmee speaking."

There was silence on the other end of the line, and then a low rough voice spoke, a voice that she would know anywhere. "Hello," her wolf said, sounding awkward and extremely uncomfortable to be using a telephone in the first place. She couldn't help the grin that split her face. He had never called her before, and it was Christmas Eve too. It felt like an unexpected present, since she wasn't supposed to see him until tomorrow night, when she was to give him his star.

"Hi, Mister Jack," Renesmee chirped out, her antlers bobbing as she did a little hop in place. He didn't say anything in the awkward silence that followed, and it occurred to her that this might be the first time that her wolf had ever used a phone. She assumed it was her wolf's roommate's phone, so she added politely, "Please tell Mister Rico that I said hello as well."

Vampire hearing could easily pick up phone conversations, and she could hear familiar laughter in the background. "Smart little whip, ain't she?" someone murmured, and after her wolf growled something in Quileute in that voice's direction, he was talking into the phone again.

"I would like to speak with your father or mother, Renesmee," Jack told her, which was fine because she was already heading to the living room, not seeing her family's eyes watching her protectively. "Yes, Mister Jack," she said cheerfully, and then she added shyly. "Merry Christmas Eve." There was another pause, and then he spoke quietly to her in Quileute, a small phrase that she pretended meant Merry Christmas Eve right back. Then she handed the phone to her father. "Daddy? Mister Jack wants to speak with you."

It would be rude to listen into their conversation, so Renesmee excused herself to the upstairs restroom, where she could only hear her father's voice.

"…I'm not sure, Jack. I think she would enjoy the experience, but her thirst has been unpredictable…"

Her wolf must have said something else, and then her father made that little noise in his throat that he always did when he was agreeing to something he wasn't one hundred percent sure about. "Yes, with three of us there, it would probably be fine. Yours is technically Rico's territory, so we would need to be escorted in…yes, well, that one never has been good on manners. Our coven prefers to do things properly…yes. We will be ready."

Renesmee waited until her father hung up the phone before returning downstairs. "Daddy? What did Mister Jack want?" she asked as her mother slipped away to the kitchen on silent feet.

Her father gave her a smile, although it was a little tighter than normal. "I know you weren't expecting to see him until tomorrow, Renesmee, but Jack wants to show us something. He'll be here in about a half hour, and we'll need to hurry, okay? So go get changed into something you can run in. Your mother is going to get you something more to drink before we go."

Renesmee was full already, full enough that she felt she could burst, but she was so excited that she would get to see her wolf that she ran upstairs to do as she was told. Downstairs she could still hear her family talking.

"Life used to be a lot easier when you could predict everything, Alice," her father was saying, sounding resigned. "Since he will be there, couldn't you have at least seen us with _him_?"

"No. That vampire has spent so much time with the mutt that I can't see him at all. Everything he does, with Jack around or without, is hidden from me. Although I don't know why, the magic that makes the Pack exist shouldn't affect a vampire. It's not the kind of thing that should be able to be rubbed off."

Her Uncle Jasper spoke up thoughtfully, "Maybe it's the wolves' unpredictability that rubs off. If you spend enough time with someone that you never know what they are going to do, you never know how you'll have to react. For as much as those two are friends, the wolf is almost as cautious around that one as he is around us-"

Renesmee missed the rest of the conversation because her mother had come upstairs with a mug of warm blood, and Renesmee still was trying to get her black reindeer nose to scrub off sufficiently. By the time she was done, she could smell her wolf on the wind, and Renesmee hadn't finished tying her shoelaces but it didn't keep her from running down the stairs and dashing out to the front porch. She really had picked the wrong reindeer name.

Jack trotted out of the woods, the dimness from the setting sun not hiding him from her vampire enhanced eyes. This time when she grinned at him, he shot her a full smile in return, looking happier than she was used to seeing him.

"Hach awí, Mister Jack," Renesmee chirped, proud that she hadn't stumbled on the words and that she hadn't accidentally wished him a good morning instead of a good evening. She wished that she could go give him the hug that she wanted to give him, but it was good enough to see his pleased expression on his face.

"Hach awí, Renesmee," he told her, the smile still on his face. Her wolf nodded to her parents, where they stood behind her, letting them know that he was approaching her before doing so. Then Jack stepped up to the house and knelt before her on the porch, and as such was still taller than her. He looked straight into her eyes as he spoke. "Can you run, Renesmee?" Jack asked her in his rough, quiet voice. "Can you run and at the end of the run, not hunt?"

Renesmee bit her lip and looked up at him, her mind racing as she tried to decide. She had fed that morning, her Cheerios swimming in blood instead of milk, and she had eaten a grilled cheese for lunch. She had drank enough blood that night that she felt sloshy, and adding on the Christmas cookies and the extra mug of blood had made her very full. "I don't know, Mister Jack," she finally replied. "I think so."

"Do you _know_ so?" Jack asked her, and she could see that her answer was very important to him. Her ability to run and not kill whatever was at the end of her run was very important. So the little girl's eyes narrowed and she nodded confidently.

"Yes, Mister Jack," Renesmee promised. "I know so."

Suddenly a broad wolfish grin broke across his face, and with a glance at her parents, Jack took a step backwards. "Then let us run, imprint and Packmate," he said teasingly, his eyes sparkling as he smiled at her. "We can see if you are faster than this old wolf." And with that, he was gone, darting back through the woods the way that he had come.

Renesmee bent down and finished tying her shoelace the way that she knew she needed to, smiled cheerfully at her mother and father, and then she bolted after him.

The little girl knew that her parents were behind her, but the vampires had a tendency of spreading out as they ran, a natural reaction for predators that tended to be protective of their prey. Even her mother and father, who tended to run closer together than most, had shifted outwards unconsciously. However her attention was only for the one whose scent she was following, the wolf that was in front of her. She didn't know where they were going, so she couldn't take a faster route. The best thing to do was to run after him and try to beat him at the end.

Jack must have been waiting for her, because she had only gone a few miles when she saw him, darting in and out of the trees as he ran. To the human eye, he must have seemed like a reddish brown blur, but Renesmee's vampire enhanced sight caught everything. The bird that took wing, startled as he passed beneath her branch. The snow crunching beneath his bare feet, leaving tracks that if she were hunting him in truth, she could have easily followed. The movement of his muscles that said that for as fast as he was running, he was barely moving at half speed. Her wolf thought that she couldn't keep up. Bella must have dropped her shield because when Renesmee grinned at that, somewhere off to the side her father barked out a laugh.

Renesmee was far faster than even Jacob had ever known.

She had been fast when she was younger, but with every growth spurt Renesmee had grown faster still. She wasn't as coordinated as her family, they could turn quicker and dart better than she could, but given a straight enough stretch to run, she was her own father's equal in speed. Possibly more, not that she'd tried to outrun him since she was two. In barely three heartbeats, Renesmee had overtaken her wolf, and if he had been surprised that she was about to pass him by, he was amused by her unwillingness to do so.

Side by side and twenty paces apart, they raced through the woods, and as the cold wind blew over her skin, Renesmee let out a laugh. She rarely ran when it wasn't for hunting, and there had been a time when running had been all that she had ever wanted to do. Unfortunately, with running came the need to hunt, so she avoided it these days. Since she had promised her wolf that she would contain that need, Renesmee tried to plug her nose, tried to ignore the scent of the blood filled winter creatures in the forest and focused on her other senses instead.

She could hear the small intake of Jack's breath before he increased his speed, and Renesmee responded, increasing her own and matching him step for step. Her sharp ears could hear the fall of her father's feet off to the side, and her mother's feet slightly behind them, and somewhere far in the distance a semi-truck's brakes squealed. Jack's eyes tracked to her left, and Renesmee realized that path was less rocky, was faster ground. She was ready for it when he shifted direction, and Renesmee stayed even with him as he did, her half-vampire body easily maintaining this pace.

Playfully Renesmee took a little skipping half step faster, before jumping over a fallen tree, just to show him that she could, and she giggled when Jack bent to scoop a handful of snow into his fingers as he ran, never missing a stride. For a moment, their eyes met and both simultaneously grinned.

Without warning or reason, something changed. It was as if something had shifted in between them, and suddenly Renesmee could feel her wolf more. It was very slight, the difference, but Renesmee was very attuned to the slightest changes in her environment. Her wolf was impatient, for all that he was waiting and playing with her, and without thinking, Renesmee really began to run.

This time, she blew right past him.

Jack must have been startled, maybe he thought that she had scented something and was lunging for a kill, because a soft word in Quileute passed over his lips, a word that she had only heard Jacob say before and usually when Jacob wasn't happy. When Jack caught up with her, something that was easier said than done and took several strides in doing, Renesmee was once again laughing. Jack looked at her questioningly and touched a finger to his throat, and she shook her head. Then he nodded, his small smile gracing his lips as he shifted outwards to give her space.

Jacob had once told Renesmee that the wolves ran tighter to each other than the vampires did, it was part of being linked together into a single Packmind. They would spread out on the Alpha's command to better hunt their intended prey, but as a group they ran so close that they would brush each other constantly. Jacob had said that in holding themselves away from the Pack physically, it was hurtful and sometimes considered rude by the other Pack members. Jacob always ran tight to her family when he hunted with them, even with her father. But once her own wolf was reassured that her increase in speed wasn't from hunger, Jack immediately shifted back to his initial distance, about twenty paces.

Renesmee wondered if it was him, a wolf that had been alone so long that he didn't know how to or didn't want to run as a Pack anymore, or if it was her, a half-vampire imprint that he only rarely allowed to be in close proximity to himself, whose coven had made it clear that he had to keep his distance? Was it Jack who was to blame for this breech in wolf etiquette, or was it a wolf trying to accommodate for her own and her family's lack of wolfish behavior? How different was he from the wolves that she had known through Jacob and Seth? Or was he the same, but in having imprinted on someone so different, was he forced outside of his natural comfort zone?

Would he like his Christmas present from her?

In her distractions, Renesmee had instinctively followed Jack's lead as they ran, shifting half a step behind as her thoughts began a downward spiral into worry. She didn't know if it was her fault, but reason told her that even a lone wolf wanted to be part of a Pack, and that it must be her. She was different, and it made their imprinting different. And everyone had always said that being different made you special and unique, but in Renesmee's experience, being different just made her feel alone.

Her father's sparkling skin and bronze hair appeared out of the corner of her eye, his worried look and his reassuring smile a physical reminder that she had people that loved her, that Renesmee wasn't completely alone. It helped, and as Edward shifted back into the trees, she realized that her wolf had slowed again, compensating for the infinitesimal lessening of coordination that came with her running distracted.

"Sorry, Mister Jack," she apologized softly, blushing a little, but her wolf just gave her a calm look and then suddenly stopped. It was so abrupt that she flew past him and ended up having to slide to a halt and brace her hand on a tree to stop her momentum. Renesmee's little palm left an indent in the tree bark, and she frowned. She wasn't supposed to do that, leave marks in the land that could show something supernatural had passed through.

He had settled to his knees in the snow, seeming content to be doing so, and Renesmee didn't understand. She had felt his impatience, as brief as it was. "What are you doing, Mister Jack?" she asked politely, and when he seemed to not hear her, she realized that she hadn't asked it the way that he would respond, and so she tried to remember the right words.

"Alilà-cha', Mister Jack?"

"Waiting for you, Renesmee," her wolf replied calmly, sounding completely accepting of their stillness. "When you are ready to continue, we will."

"I can go now, Mister Jack," she assured him, wondering at what he meant, even as her eyes flickered across their surroundings. His however were only on one thing, her, and Renesmee shifted slightly under that gaze. "We can go now, it's okay."

"Xáxi? No, Renesmee. Xwpá."

And that would be that, because he closed his eyes and looked for all the world as if he had fallen asleep. Unsure of what to do, Renesmee glanced over to the side where her parents were standing there quietly, frozen statues in their natural immobility, pale skin glittering like the fallen snow. In sharp contrast, her wolf was like the earth in summer, warm and deeper in tone, his muscles moving over bone as his shoulders rose and fell with his breathing. Caught somewhere in between, not enough like any of them, Renesmee turned and walked to the tree that she had stamped her hand against.

Renesmee had learned not to do things like what she had done to this tree before she was six months old. Normally she wouldn't have, but sometimes when her brain began turning over her thoughts, it turned them over too fast and she made mistakes. The older she became, the harder it was to maintain her focus and not become distracted by both the world inside of her and the world out. But she still didn't understand why they had stopped. What was her wolf waiting for with her? She had felt his impatience, and she knew that he had wanted to go faster. She had _felt_ it—

And then it clicked into place. If she had felt his impatience, was it possible that her wolf had felt her loss of concentration? Had her worry and her confusion somehow become his own, the same way his impatience had become her own?

Renesmee glanced at her father again, the only person she was used to having tied into her emotions like that. He gave her an unreadable look, and then he nodded. Yes, her wolf could feel what she felt, although she didn't know if her father had been told so or if he had deduced it on his own. For a moment the world spun, as Renesmee tried to wrap her head around this new information. How much did Jack pick up from her? The slight amount that she had from him? More? Was she an open book to him when he was a closed one to her? Was his rejection of her expression of her thoughts through touch because she already was in his head, even though he wasn't in hers? Was she imagining all of this just to play pretend, the Crown Princess and her wolf, pretending that he could know her and accept her without her ever having to express herself?

Expressing herself was so difficult these days, because sometimes it felt that she didn't know the parts vying for control. Renesmee knew who she _had_ been, and she knew who she _wanted_ to grow up to be, but she was very confused with who she was now. The imprint only made it that much more confusing, and so the little girl sat down on a small stone and she stared at her wolf.

He was very relaxed looking. _His_ thoughts must be the calmest place to be.

Renesmee wanted her thoughts to be the calmest place to be, because it seemed like she was always racing in her head when she wanted to be doing other, normal things, like racing through the woods. So she tried to figure out how to calm herself, tried to think of all the calming things that she knew. Jazz music always calmed her, as did burning candles that smelled of smoke and matches, and apples or the ocean breeze. Bubble baths calmed her because she always fell asleep trying to count all the little bubbles, and she never could seem to get past four thousand and twenty-three. Reading a book while leaning against her father's shoulder was relaxing, as was listening to her mother's fingers gracefully dance across the piano's keys.

Jacob. For all her excitement in seeing him, Jacob calmed her deeply. He was her Alpha, and it made sense, although she wondered that being around Jack didn't make her as calm as Jacob did. Jacob had said that Jack was the most submissive wolf in the Pack, so maybe it was a dominance thing. Either way, she very much liked her wolf, liked Jack exactly as he was, and she wanted him to be happy. Jack had wanted to show her something, and they had been in a rush to get there, and she was using up time to organize her thoughts when they could be running.

Renesmee liked to run, and she had liked to run with Jack, and that's what they should do. She would ask him about their imprinting later, but for now everything would have to wait.

The little girl stood up, causing her wolf to open a single eye lazily. Renesmee gave him her prettiest smile and bobbed a little curtsy that didn't quite fit the jeans and sweater that she was wearing.

"_Xáxi_, Mister Jack," she told him firmly. "I'm ready now." Her wolf nodded in acquiescence, rising fluidly to his feet, and if the wait had chafed him, he never once let it show. Jack's eyes flickered to her family, and then to the south, the direction they were headed.

When Jack leapt away, this time Renesmee was at his side, matching him with every single step.

* * *

It had been tiring, running as many patrols as they had been running, but the semester was over, and Seth had managed to pass by the skin of his teeth. It had taken him an extra six months to get it done, but Seth was now officially a high school graduate.

A high school graduate with no particular future in sight.

Sprawled on his front porch steps, Seth watched the heavy grey clouds rolling over the reservation, fat with snow that for the moment refused to fall. Their bulk blocking the true beauty of the setting sun, Seth enjoyed the view anyways. It had been a cold winter this year, and the young Beta often felt bad seeing his tribe move past him in their bundles of warm winter clothes, when Seth himself barely noticed the cold. The streets were emptied out today, it was Christmas Eve and everyone had places to go and family to be with. But Seth had his house all to himself, because he didn't have to patrol until later and Leah and his mother were doing some last minute Christmas shopping in Forks with Emily and Kim.

Sue had wanted to take Cassie with them, but Seth had regretfully told her no. Paul's imprint was under lock and key, at least until enough time had passed that Jake and Seth were sure no one was going to be coming looking for her, and no matter how bored their tiny attack imprint was, it was better this way.

As he looked around the reservation, Seth felt a sense of peace. A lot of his classmates couldn't wait to get off the rez, but Seth wasn't one of them. Even before he had phased, Seth had never felt the desire to leave, to experience a world outside of this one. He was Quileute, through and through, and as such felt deeply tied to both the land and his people, a tie that strengthened every year. Seth was right where he wanted to be.

Too bad when Sims went away to college, Jake was making Seth leave with her. Of course, Sims didn't know that, and she didn't know that Seth had poked around the school records after hours to see where he'd be living for the four years it took her to graduate. He'd been a little shocked when he'd read the paperwork, but there were a lot worse places than California to be. It was close enough to get back to the rez if his family or his Pack needed him. And Jake was right; it was too dangerous for the Alpha to leave, not with Emb starting to backslide and Calgary hovering in the corner of their eyes. And it was too dangerous to let her go alone.

Seth was too laid back to make an issue of it, but he was pretty sure that if Sims hadn't been the Alpha's imprint, that she may not have been allowed to go that far away at all. They were stretched thin enough as it was, and losing even one Packmate from patrolling increased the workload on them all. But the Pack hadn't been easy on Sims, and Jake felt that they owed it to her, after Calgary, after trying to force her to phase. Jake wasn't taking college away from her, not if he could do anything at all to help it. And Seth would go where his Alpha said, at least if Jake wasn't being an idiot.

Plus there were hot girls in California. Seth was pretty sure he'd manage okay.

Speaking of girls, there was one walking down the streets right now, her carrot colored hair stuffed under a fluffy brown bomber hat that wasn't so much cute as it was adorably unique. Just like the girl under the bomber jacket that matched the hat so well. Grinning, Seth watched Chancy Hoblin scurry down the darkening street, her nose bright red from the cold. He wasn't sure where she was going, she was deliberately staying on the far side of the street from his house, and there was no way she hadn't seen him out here on the porch.

It meant she was avoiding him. Chancy did that every couple weeks, and like the hunter he was, Seth couldn't help but love it every time she made him chase her.

"I can still see you, Chancy," Seth called out teasingly from his side of the pavement when she was close to where he was sitting. "Your disguise isn't Seth proof."

"Lalala, I can't hear you," she muttered back, not aware that he could hear her. "Just ignore him, just ignore him…"

Oh yes, she was definitely avoiding him.

Seth grinned and hopped to his feet as she walked exactly even with him, her arms folded around her waist. "Oh, _Chan_-cy," he sing-songed, and she shot him a frustrated look.

"Go away, Seth," Chancy told him, sounding distracted. "I'm not talking to you right now. I'm having me time, Chancy time, so go…be Seth Clearwater by yourself for a while. Shoo."

The Beta couldn't help his smile widening. "I'm in trouble, aren't I? I love when I'm in trouble with you, Chance, it always has this exciting feel to it." A snowball tried and failed to hit him in the face from across the street, so Seth moved to the middle of the blacktop to make the second one easier for her. Wiping snow off his face, Seth hit her with his best contrite expression. "What did I do?"

It was a game he played with her, doing things that he knew annoyed her, just to have the fun of teasing her mercilessly until she wasn't mad anymore. It had been their thing since school started, but Chancy just started walking faster.

"It's Christmas Eve, Seth," she muttered, and she refused to meet his eyes as she started walking faster. "Just leave me alone today. Carrot top will be back in business for best friend status tomorrow. I just need a day off, okay?"

Seth's grin slid from his face, and as Chancy scurried on past, he stood in the middle of the street and watched her go. They had spent a lot of time together in the last six months, and Seth had dragged that girl to more bad movies and family dinners and early morning doughnut runs than he could count. He knew that she became too cold if she took her socks off, that she was unhealthily addicted to reality television, and that she would fall asleep no matter who picked the movie to watch. He knew that she was pro-sugary drinks and anti-getting up early, and that Chancy would pick up no matter how late or how often he called. She was his friend, and he cared about her, and if she wanted him to leave her alone then Seth would honor that request.

Or at least he would if she really meant it. You see, Chancy messed up, because instead of just walking away, she started to look back. It was a tiny motion and no one else would have noticed it, but this was Seth. Seth might not be in love with Chancy Hoblin, but he watched her like a hawk.

The Beta was in front of her so fast that Chancy whacked her face against his chest, her bomber hat askew as she yelped in surprise and jumped back. She couldn't go very far because Seth had his hands on her shoulders, staring down at her with a frown. "Chancy? What's wrong?"

She opened her mouth, and then shut again, and then she looked embarrassed. Seth loved the flush of color that came so easily to her cheeks, but he didn't like seeing her embarrassed when he didn't know why, and Seth's frown deepened. A movement in the corner of his eye told him that inside the houses, people were watching, and it made him instantly annoyed. He didn't want anyone looking at her when she looked unhappy, so he took her hand and pulled her across the street towards his house. Chancy tried to tug her hand free, but Seth just kept moving and the redhead had no choice but to follow. Seth got Chancy inside, away from prying eyes, and then he closed the door firmly behind them. Now that he had her safe and sound in his territory, Seth let her hand go.

It was better with him between her and the world, so Seth leaned his back against the wall next to the door. Not against the door to trap her in, but next to it to guard it in case she needed him too. Seth might have actually upset her somehow, but it sure as hell hadn't been on purpose, and the growing scent of her shame and her worry was triggering things inside of him. Angry, protective things.

"Chancy," Seth said her name quietly, feeling like the calm before the storm. "Something's bothering you. Do you want to talk about it?"

Chancy pursed her lips, and she looked even more embarrassed. "Ummm…Seth? If I tell you something, will you promise not to freak out? I mean, if it does freak you out, I get it, and I didn't want anyone to know..."

Here it was, the dreaded words that he'd been so worried she would say. Seth had been pretty sure that it was coming for a while now, and he inwardly cringed. Seth liked Chancy, he liked her a lot, but he wasn't free to care about someone. And him telling her that after she poured her heart out to him would only humiliate her.

Seth closed his eyes and cursed softly. Then he opened them and looked at Chancy. "Listen, Chance…shit. How do I say this? Okay, Chancy, you know I adore you, right?"

She looked confused but nodded, and Seth walked over to her, taking her hands. "And I flirt with you because I think you're one of the coolest girls I've ever known. I think you should have guys lined around the block for you, and I _want_ to be able to be one of those guys. You have no idea how much I would love to just be normal and be with you and not have to worry about anything else. I like you, Chancy, enough that if I could date right now, I would be on your doorstep hounding you constantly. I just…I just can't, Chance. I can't date you, I can't date anyone. I'm sorry. Please _please_ don't be hurt, because it's not you."

Chancy was staring at him, her jaw slightly dropped and then suddenly she started to laugh. Seth had expected cursing, tears, or strong silence, hell he had even been prepared for a slap in the face. But Chancy was _laughing_ at him.

"Seriously, Seth?" Chancy snorted from her giggles, sounding a bit like a piglet even though she was trying to cover it up. "I'm sorry, I just…wow. _Wow_. Okay, thanks, good to know."

She patted his shoulder and then walked away, still laughing. Seth followed, even more confused and feeling a little hurt. She could have been at least a _little_ disappointed that he couldn't be with her.

"So you're not mad?" Seth asked a little wistfully, and Chancy snickered.

"No, Seth, I'm not mad, but thank you, I really needed that laugh," the redhead said, opening up the fridge and grabbing out the jar of pickles. Neither of them liked pickles, but they had dubbed December as Pickle Month, meaning that any snaking had to be done on the sour, briny things or risk being labeled a weanie by the other. Chancy grunted trying to open the jar, and Seth absently took it away from her, easily twisting the lid before handing it back. She plucked a spear out and began munching on it, shooting him a grin. "I'm not mad at all."

"Not at _all_?" he asked, just to make sure, feeling his ego deflate like a leaky tire. Seth wondered if it would be appropriate to pout and decided to eat a pickle instead.

"Nope," Chancy said, and then she crammed the rest of the pickle down her throat before looking at Seth and saying softly, "Seth, I'm late."

Seth glanced at the kitchen oven timer and tipped his head to the side. "Yeah? Do you need a ride somewhere?" he asked, thinking that if she was late, then she should have just told him in the first place. He would have driven her somewhere, and she didn't have to make such a big…deal…of…oh. _Oh_.

_Uh oh_.

For a moment, the Beta mentally flailed. It was an interesting thing feeling the world flip flop the plans you had given it. Seth had this all figured out well in advance, his not quite romance with the not-quite girl of his dreams. She would eventually fall in love with him, and him with her, but alas the hero and the heroine would have to go their own ways because it was never meant to be. But instead, Chancy was late, and if she was pregnant, then some lucky bastard just stole his daydream.

Stunned and not having a clue what to say, Seth ate another pickle. He hadn't even known she was seeing anyone.

"Who's the…who?" Seth finally asked, trying not to sound jealous. The Beta couldn't remember the last time he had been jealous. Protective, territorial, and defensive, yes. Ready to kick a leech's ass for ogling his best friend, definitely, but jealous was a new one. Even Chancy could hear his teeth grinding, and she gave him a resigned look as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Just some guy, a guy at a party in Forks a few weeks ago," Chancy sighed. "He was so _good looking_ too, Seth! And I blame you completely because watching you run around half naked all the time has put my lustiness into over drive, and I pretty much mauled him. I haven't so much been on a date since I moved here, and I just…ugh. It's not like I've slept with very many guys, he was only the second. But I was a little drunk and I just _wanted_ to, you know?"

"How drunk?" Seth asked, his voice growing quiet. If this guy had pushed himself on her when she was trashed, Seth was going to walk right through Jake's Alpha orders about hurting humans, and Seth was going to _destroy_ him. But Chancy just sighed and groaned.

"Two drinks? Three? I wasn't that drunk because it was over a couple of hours," Chancy told him, grabbing another pickle. "He was a lot drunker than I was, but we used protection, we really did," Chancy added, her voice turning to a petulant wail. "Seth, it just sucks so _much_! I hadn't gotten laid since I moved here, and the sex was just awful. I was safety girl, I promise, and still I'm stuck with _this_! This non-working at the moment place." She pointed to her lower regions, and of course, Seth looked. It was pretty instinctual, she had pointed after all.

"Seth! Stop staring at my stuff! My possibly impregnated stuff!" Chancy threw a pickle at him as he inhaled deeply, and suddenly Seth grinned at her as he caught the pickle midair and downed it.

"You're not pregnant, Chancy," Seth told her reassuringly, putting his hands on her shoulders. He knew this because if she was, he should have been able to smell a difference in her scent. She could be early enough along that the scent hadn't changed enough yet, or his nose could be stuffed full of pickle brine, but she still smelled like the same Chancy to him. The redhead didn't know that, though, so she gave him a look of distress, and Seth wrapped her up in his arms. His chin always had fit nicely on top of her head. "I bet you five bucks you're not pregnant."

Chancy stuffed her face into the slight hollow areas between his pectoral muscles. Seth figured that it was a good enough place for her to hide, much better than she realized. "I don't _want_ to be pregnant, Seth," Chancy groaned. "I want to go to college and not do drugs and become an investment banker. It's my rebellion against the rebelling of the 'man' that my parents have been rebelling against since forever. I want to be _normal_."

Seth chuckled and patted her big bomber hat and thought that Chancy had no clue that she was the most normal person in his life. "Why don't you go get a test, Chance?" Seth offered. "That way you don't have to spend Christmas Eve worrying about it and walking around aimlessly in the snow?"

"The store is closed," she mumbled mournfully against his chest, and then Chancy went still. She wasn't a very pretty girl, but when her eyes lit up and she looked up at him, she was practically beaming. She went from adorably unique to simply adorable in the Beta's mind. "The store is closed, but _you_ have keys. Seth Clearwater! _You have keys_! I have money and you have keys and this way I don't have to sneak past your mom or your sister. Seth!" She whacked his chest in excitement, and he couldn't help his answering grin.

"Yeah, yeah, we can go," Seth laughed, ruffling her hat and sending it askew as he went and grabbed his keys. "Come on."

Seth Clearwater and Chancy Hoblin walking through La Push together had become a pretty normal sight these days, but Seth made a big production of trying to look stealthy and secretive as they snuck in the back door, and the rumors of their extracurricular activities with each other would only get more juicy after today. Normally Chancy would have pointed this out to Seth, but he was making her laugh on a night that she really needed to laugh, and once inside, she made a beeline for the pregnancy tests. Seth watched her grab one and dart to the single toilet bathroom, and Seth grinned and ambled after her, leaning against the door outside with his arms crossed.

If he was wrong, if she was pregnant, would she want to keep the baby? If she kept the baby, would she name him Seth? Seth thought that Seth was a very good name indeed.

"Seth, I can't pee when I know you're listening," Chancy's muffled voice told him petulantly.

"I'm not listening, Chance," Seth chuckled, "I'm think up baby names."

Her indignant squeak of an answer was cut off by a curse and a small splashing noise. "Dammit…Seth? Can you get me another one? I kind of dropped it in the toilet."

"Won't it still work?" he asked, being mindful of their inventory, and this time something thumped against the door.

"That is the _grossest_ thing I have ever heard, Seth!"

Seth laughed and went back to get her a new one, but they were out of the other kind that she had grabbed, so he looked at the options. "Hey Chancy?" Seth called through the door from across the small store. "What do you like better? Lines or dots?"

"What? I don't know," she called back through the door. "What's the difference?"

"Ummm…the lines are more accurate if they are clear…but the dots…oh wow, that's pretty graphic. Ummm…"

"Just give me the lines, Seth."

"One dual lined pregnancy test, coming up!" Seth declared cheerfully as his mother and his sister chose exactly that moment to walk through the door. Seth would have noticed them earlier, but the dots thing had kind of distracted him. He looked up, pregnancy tests in hand, and gave his mother a weak smile. "Hi, Ma."

"Holy shit, you knocked her up?" Leah asked, looking horrified as Sue stared at him, dazed. "_On Christmas Eve_? Dammit, Seth, _again_? How fucking hard is it for you to just keep your dick in a damn wrapper?"

Seth blinked as his sister started his way, and he began backpedalling, "Mayday, _mayday_, Chance," he muttered, but she didn't hear him.

The girl in the bathroom was having a hard time not peeing at this point, so they all heard her say petulantly. "Seth, I'm going to piss myself here! Lines, dots, I don't care. Just throw it in here. But don't look!"

"I can honestly say," Seth told the women in his family in his most appealing and innocent voice, holding up his pregnancy test filled hands. "That this one is _not_ my fault…"

"Seth!" Sue's voice had come back to her, and Seth instinctively ducked, not even trying to hold onto the pregnancy test as Leah snagged it out of his hand. Chancy let out a squawk of surprise when Leah burst in and handed it to her, and Seth made a similar noise when Sue marched right up to him and grabbed Seth by the ear, jerking him down to her level. "_Seth Harold Clearwater_, just because I want grandbabies one day doesn't mean that I want them from some poor little girl in there who couldn't say no to your charms. From now on you will keep your hands in your pockets and your penis in your pants! Do you understand me? We will _not_ keep doing this!"

At this point denying his involvement would only make things worse, and Seth knew when to accept a defeat. "Oww oww…Yes, Ma! Hands, pockets, penis, pants… Ma that hurts…"

"So does childbirth," Sue growled, dragging him to the door, where Leah had taken up station, giving Seth a death glare.

"Chancy?" Seth said weakly. "Anytime would be a good time to start reading lines here."

"I have to pee on it first," she mumbled, sounding mortified. "I can't go with everyone listening."

Leah snorted and turned her shoulder into the door. "Just think of running water," Leah told her. "Waterfalls and that shit."

"Yes, dear," Sue called helpfully. "Long flowing streams of fish filled water…"

"Why is there fish in the water?" Leah asked, raising an eyebrow as Sue jerked Seth down by his ear further, meaning he was bent over nearly in half.

Sue rolled her eyes, saying, "I don't know, Leah. Whenever I would go fishing with your father, I always had to pee. I always just assumed it was the fish."

"That's the weirdest thing you have _ever_ said, Mom," Leah decided with a disturbed look. Apparently it worked because Chancy peed on a stick mid-fish conversation, but they had to wait a couple minutes to find out the results. There was no way in hell Chancy was leaving that bathroom to face the entire Clearwater clan, so she hid and after a couple attempts at convincing Sue through the door that it wasn't Seth's fault, Chancy cut her losses and quite apologetically let Seth take the fall.

It seemed that no one in this town was inclined to believe that Seth and Chancy weren't sleeping together.

Leah decided that Seth deserved getting kicked in the shins to pass the time, and Sue and Leah started talking about the color yellow and Seth being castrated from now on, and Seth decided that if he didn't get best friend forever points from this, then the world just wasn't a fair place. Finally Chancy let out a happy noise and came barreling out of the bathroom, launching herself at Seth and declaring herself not pregnant. It would have been a beautiful, poignant moment if Seth hadn't been staring at his mother's face in abject horror.

Sue had the look, the "I have a speech about responsibility" look, and for once it wasn't directed at Seth alone. It was directed at Chancy and Seth both.

"Run, Chance," Seth whispered to her, "_Run_." Chancy blinked in confusion and then stared in equal horror as Sue pulled out her cell and made a phone call.

"Mrs. Hoblin?" Sue said sweetly. "Yes, this is Sue Clearwater. I think our children are due for a _talk_."

* * *

When Renesmee had grown confused and uncertain, her steps almost twice taking her into trees that should have easily been avoided, Jack had grown concerned. However, when Jack had felt his imprint verging on the cusp of that shattering he felt so often with her, he had grown unreasonably furious with the world.

Jack was mad at the very existence of _all_ of the Cold Ones, and their ability to bring a child into the world that had to fight her own nature so hard just to find happiness. He was mad at the spirits who refused to warn him when his imprint nearly mistepped both times, when he had done as _they_ had asked for so very long. But mostly Jack was mad at himself, because if he had been willing to force the issue, to ignore her parent's wishes and simply pick her up, to keep her close and in contact with him, he knew that some of her hurt would go away.

It had been for everyone's safety, really, that he had stopped them all.

For right or for wrong, Jack had been a wolf for a very long time and his natural instincts were to look upon Cold Ones as his enemies. His instincts had been to turn and phase, to drive off the vampires that had flanked them, to protect his young and vulnerable imprint even if outnumbered two to one, and her uncertainty only pushed his instincts to do so into overdrive. Attacking his imprint's parents was on the list of things that well behaved imprinted wolves did _not_ do, so he had calmly refrained, had ignored the ones in his head crying for him to tear them to shreds, and he had sank to his knees instead to wait for her uncertainty and his anger to pass. Having felt her rolling emotions for two months now, he knew that the uncertainty _would_ fade, if given enough time. And Jack knew himself well enough that when she was no longer in pain, he would no longer hate the entirety of the world around her, including himself, out of protective defense of her.

So the child had sat quietly and taken her time, had slowly softened herself back into a state that was far less breakable. With her calmness came his own, and Jack spent his moments waiting in prayer to the ancestors and the spirits, forcing himself to a meekness that he no longer always felt and asking forgiveness for the mistakes he had made. They did not listen, they never did, but Jack's irrational anger slipped away. At least he had tried.

His imprint was safe, and it was good that he had not let his instincts rule him. Natural enemies or not, Jack needed to maintain a peace with her family.

They were his biggest stumbling block to this imprinting, although if they had been human, it would have not have been nearly so hard. The Tlokwali had always protected their people, had been a shield for the Quileute and never a spear. To be submissive to the will of a human was not so much different than being submissive to the will of tribal nation, and Jack was sure that he could have done so with much more acceptance had the situation been changed. But they were Cold Ones and expected to be treated the same as humans, and were often insulted by his struggles with it.

Did they not understand? A man did not forget a thousand years of conditioning in a single day, not even one who had much to lose by them taking his imprint away. It was difficult, but he was trying. More than they could possibly know, he was trying, for his imprint's sake and for his own. And now that she was calm, had declared herself ready to run once more, Jack was ready too.

Enough of thoughts about emotions, emotions he didn't know how to change.

His imprint was good to run with, and Jack couldn't help but think that fate should have made her a wolf instead. Her instincts were to shift closer as she ran, not to drift away, and he was constantly correcting his own path to keep an appropriate distance between them, exactly half of the distance that her Cold One parents were keeping from her. It was a measure of trust that they had not afforded him thus far. Except for their game with the sparrow the other day, Jack had never been closer to her than the distance that her coven believed that they could cover to keep him from her.

They were wrong, however. Jack was much faster than they believed.

Still, it was possible that Jack was not as fast as his imprint, because as she ran, now focused and determined in her thoughts and steps, it was all he could do to keep up with her. For the first time in centuries the wolf that he had once been joined with stirred, a wolf spirit whose existence Jack had nearly killed in his…mistakes. Its wish was softly expressed, it wanted to run with their Packmate and soul mate. It enjoyed their time spent with her.

_Soul mate_. The words rocked him deep to his core, making Jack nearly lose his balance as he ran. Imprint, yes. Packmate, yes. And if she so wanted, far into the future when she was old enough to understand the reality of the damaged wolf fate had given her, then possibly more. But not _soul mate_. Jack had been given a soul mate, two in fact, and he had lost both of them forever. No one was ever given more.

Right?

As Jack's wolf slipped away, the faintest shadow of what it had once been, Jack's dead Alpha smirked in amusement. Perhaps Jack was the one that needed to sit down on a rock and soften himself into a state of lesser breakability? It was the action of a child, but T'sikáti was aware that the elderly often regressed to childlike mentalities, and it might do him some good.

Jack growled silently and wondered if T'sikáti had been this much of a pain when he was alive, or if in being dead, his naturally bad qualities were leaking out?

It was the kind of thing that he had once said to his Alpha and oldest friend, and in saying so now, deep in Jack's soul something healed. It was a tiny wound, one of thousands and nearly insignificant compared to the depth and severity of the others, but it healed. And maybe the child at his side didn't know why he suddenly exhaled in sharp relief, as if the world had shifted into a slightly better place, but she did know one thing. If she was going to be faster than him, she would have to work for it.

Renesmee wasn't just quick on her feet, she was the most clever child Jack had ever known, and she was smart enough that as he suddenly changed directions, she stayed right on his heels. He pushed himself for more, not having run so hard in human form that he could remember, certainly not since the days when he was still…when he had been better than he was today. But today was better than yesterday, and Jack shot the child a grin and threw himself through the forest with everything he had.

Like he said. He was very fast.

They were within the land that had once belonged to the Hoh when Jack finally slowed. The scent of Cold One was growing stronger, both from in front of him and behind, and Jack cursed and turned, realizing too late his mistake. In his joy in running with his imprint, they had outrun her parents, Cold Ones that didn't trust her alone with him yet. If they had been out of range of her father's ability to hear her thoughts, then Jack would have reneged on his part of the agreement.

They were going to be furious with him. His frustrations regarding their predatory nature aside, to be the family of an imprint was no small thing. He had abided by their rules every day for two months, even when they had angered him, and he had truly not meant to do any differently now.

It seemed that every time Jack allowed himself a moment free of restraint, free of worry and regret that he was fated to make another mistake.

The child, Renesmee, was grinning at him as she barely seemed winded, and it was to keep the smile on her face that Jack stepped away from her and placed his hands behind his back. Groaning silently and forcing himself to do this for her, Jack lowered his eyes and tilted his head sideways, exposing his throat in apology as one of the Cold Ones came into view, eyes bright with anger. They would be able to kill him if they wanted now, and he had already decided that he would not fight back. Jack had to maintain a peace with them, and felt that this was the only way.

The voices in his head stopped chanting momentarily, waiting to see if they would finally be given leave to take what was left of him, what the Cold One had stolen out from their grasp.

"Sorry, Daddy," Renesmee said immediately, her bell like voice chiming out cheerfully as the male, Edward, strode up to them. "We didn't mean to leave you behind, but you should have seen how fast Mister Jack can run! I think that I might have been faster if I hadn't eaten the grilled cheese."

The Cold One started to move to Jack, but then froze at seeing the wolf's vulnerable stance. Again Edward began to shift and Jack braced himself, eyes half closing, but Edward stopped and chose to put his hands on his daughter's shoulders instead.

Edward gave Renesmee a smile and hugged her, saying, "You have proven that you are both faster than Bella and I realized, Nessie. You might be the fastest of us all." Golden eyes turned Jack's way, and he tilted his head even more. He hated this, hated that he had to expose himself like this, but Jack knew that he had been in the wrong. He should have kept the child to a slower pace.

"Next time stay closer to us, Renesmee," the female said smoothly as she suddenly appeared at their side, and in apology, Jack scooted further away from his imprint. He was prepared to die because of this, but he didn't want to have it happen in front of the child. It would wound Renesmee deeply, his instincts knew this for a fact.

Jake had been edgy tonight, something was bothering him, and when that happened he always paid particularly close attention to his wolves. Jack wasn't like the Beta or the Third, he wasn't strong enough anymore to speak to his Alpha in words when in human form, but the willingness for death out of remorse was a strong enough emotion that it caught Jake's notice.

The Alpha didn't like that, not one bit, and Jake gave Jack the impression that he expected all of his wolves to fight to keep living. It was that as much as the Cold One's words that lowered Jack's chin.

"Enough, Jack," Edward said, looking torn between annoyance and grudging acceptance. "You aren't the first one to get caught up in running. For the vampire, it's the prey at the end of the hunt, but Jacob always said that for the wolf it is the run itself."

It was a concession, and Jack nodded. "My Alpha is wiser in our ways than he himself knows," Jack stated quietly, shifting so that both vampires were between himself and his imprint. His own concession, albeit a small one. Baring his throat to them had been a large enough concession, one he had never even given Rico, and he was still deeply disturbed by the fact that he had done it. Forcing that distress aside, it was getting his Alpha worked up and Jack didn't want that, the ancient wolf took the point and led his imprint and her family through the woods.

They were close to his and Rico's home, and Jack wondered what his imprint would think. She was raised in luxury, and Jack spent his nights sleeping in the dirt beneath an old worn out travel trailer or on a lawn chair on the roof. As he took them along the road, paying close attention to the fact that there were two Cold Ones right behind his shoulders, Jack allowed himself to be content about it. It was in his nature, the nature of his people, to live beneath the sky and to take shelter only for comfort and companionship. If she was allowed to have access to him, then his imprint would grow to know this about him and if she so choose, to accept it.

The apple tree had lost its leaves, and Jack glanced at it as he passed by, his eyes instinctively sweeping over the form to make sure that the ice and the snow wasn't killing it. Renesmee's eyes shifted towards it, and she looked at him quizzically before moving on to take in everything else. The stack of pallets by the front of the trailer, the pile now half as high from Jack burning them for firewood. The broken down four-wheeler that Rico had brought home a few weeks ago with no explanation, now become the vampire's newest napping spot. Jack padded around behind the house to where the horse turnouts were, and he heard his little imprint give a gasp of pleasure.

"Daddy," Renesmee said to her father, and Jack could hear his imprint take her father's hand. "I didn't know Mister Jack had horses," she whispered excitedly. "Look, he's got two, and I can smell a third in that barn. Three!"

Jack turned and gave her a small smile. "We have qa'al, Renesmee," he told her quietly. "But soon we will have ba'iyas, four."

It took her a moment to realize what he meant, and then she stopped dead in her tracks. The look on her face was such utter disappointment that it would have made his heart hurt just to see it, even if she had meant nothing to him. But the feeling that accompanied it was so pained that it pulled a whine from his throat, and had Jack spinning on his heel. He wasn't used to being this close to her when she was feeling like this.

"Mommy, Daddy, maybe we should go home," Renesmee whispered, her hand instinctively going to cover her nose, a nose that had a bit of black paint still on it. "I don't want to hurt a baby horse."

"Hey, Jackie boy!" Rico's drawling voice called from inside the closed in lean-to, the one that was their makeshift foaling barn. "Better hurry up or you're gonna miss the show."

Jack glanced at her parents for permission this time, instead of warning, after all he had broken faith with them and therefore would stay away from her today if they so choose. But Bella nodded, and Jack knelt down in front of his imprint. He touched his fingers to his neck again, and when she shook her head, Jack nodded. She wasn't hungry, but she was scared she would hurt something young if she became so.

"It is not what we fear that makes us who we are, imprint and Packmate," Jack told her quietly. "It is what we do. You protect a life that has not even been born yet, and in that you show that you are guided by the need for life, not the enjoyment of death. Be at peace."

"But what if-" she started to say, only to have her words cut off.

Rico had poked his blonde head outside the sliding door entrance and was looking at them with slightly darker than gold eyes. "Jack? I need you in here, buddy. She's not doing so well."

"The decision is yours, Nessie," Edward said quietly to his daughter. "But we wouldn't have brought you here if we didn't think it would be safe for you. There are three of us to your one, and we will help you if you need us to."

"You'll be okay, Renesmee," Bella encouraged, and after looking at her parents for visual confirmation of their confidence, Renesmee turned her brown eyes Jack's way.

Jack looked down at the snow and then he looked back up at her. Jack had felt the physical pain his imprint had suffered through in her growing, the confusion and hurt her emotional conflictions caused her. And yet she was a sweet child, one that always seemed to have a smile and a kind word for everyone. Jack might struggle with her parent's natures, and she might struggle with her own, but if there was a Cold One in her that was trying to stop the flow of human blood through her veins, it was no match for her human heart that forced that blood to flow.

She may be half-vampire, but Jack was quite sure that his little imprint was more human than anyone he had ever known.

Jack bowed his head and smiled slightly, as faces and voices long since gone slipped through his mind. There had been so very many that he had known, but none had ever been like her, and at the moment Jack couldn't care less that the ancestors thought.

"I believe," Jack said quietly, "That you are far stronger than you think."

The ancient wolf was not a fool, although perhaps he had not fully realized exactly how much his words meant to her. It was easy to downplay a child's complexity of emotion, of their understanding of more complicated situations. The female vampire had stated something the other night that Jack had already known, that his imprint was concerned with pleasing him. Perhaps he needed to make it clearer that he was pleased no matter how flawed she might feel she was.

A little hand touching his arm, her concern softened but still there. She imagined herself killing the foal that would be born any minute, she imagined the death in its eyes, that glassy look that she hated so much, and in showing him this, the steady chanting that was always a constant for him was blocked away. Hers was the only voice he heard, and it would be easy to be lost in that, but Jack knew that understanding his imprint was important, and he had to know her without shortcuts. He wanted to do things right this time, and so Jack waited until she was done, and then he gently shifted her hand away, tapping his thumb against her palm.

"Ayásochid, Renesmee?"

"I don't want to cause any more death, Mister Jack," she said softly, her bronze curls falling over her eyes. "I don't like that."

"_Hishuk ish tsawalk_," Jack told her, so focused on her that he almost forgot that he was flanked by Cold Ones. "It means '_everything is interconnected, and all is one_'. The Nuu-chal-nulth people believed this, and I do as well. There is death, but there is also life. Life that we will miss if we do not go watch it be born, and life that must be helped into the world. This mare never births easy, so I must help, or she too may die. Will you come with me, Renesmee?"

The little girl thought about his words and then she gave him a pretty smile. "I'll do my best," she promised. The ancient wolf nodded, understanding that was the most anyone could do. And so he led them through the fenced off pen and into the barn, where the mare lay stretched out on a thick bed of straw, her sides heaving with her contractions.

Rico sat with her, his golden eyes deepened to a rich brown, even though he was rubbing the mare's ears gently and murmuring soothingly to her. "About damn time, Jack," Rico growled lightly, tossing him a box of sterile gloves. "I think she's breeched, and I can't turn it for her. My control's not that good on the best of days."

Jack nodded and glanced at the Cold Ones that had gathered their daughter to them and were settling at the far end of the enclosure to watch. It was tempting to have the little girl help, it would mean something to her if she could bring a life into the world when she had only so far known death, but she was unpredictable, and it would hurt her more to have an accident happen now.

It was hard to think in English, but as he settled in and worked on turning the foal, but as Edward nodded, Jack was pretty sure that he had gotten the message across. Turning his attention to the mare, Jack could see one little hoof, but that wasn't good enough. The foal was twisted up.

"Damn," he growled quietly when the mare groaned in pain from the contractions, starting to roll and making it harder. "Keep her still, Rico."

"She was still enough five minutes ago," the blonde vampire drawled, but he winked at Renesmee, who was half hiding being her mother's arm as she watched wide-eyed. "Honey, she won't bite if you want a better view."

"But I _do_ bite, Mister Rico," Renesmee chirped up, and Jack grinned at her over his shoulder. Her curiosity must have been greater than any hunger the presence of a vulnerable animal may have caused, because the little girl kept hold of her mother's arm and scooted forward a few feet.

Bella was looking a little ill, having only been on the other end of this, and she gave Edward a weak look. "Edward? I'm going to…if…if you can…" Her mate stepped forward and took Renesmee's hand, chuckling at her.

"Remember that vampires can't get sick, Bella," Edward said teasingly, and Bella rolled her eyes at him before slipping out of the lean-to. Edward leaned down to whisper in his daughter's ear. "Renesmee, look, he's got the foal turned. See the two hooves?"

"Aren't babies born headfirst, Daddy?" Renesmee asked in confusion. "Like Grandpa Carlisle says?"

Edward shook his head, starting to explain about how long a foal's legs were, but then he stopped at a thought from Jack. "Ness, are you okay? Is this bothering you?"

"I'm okay, Daddy."

"Then I think Jack needs your help," Edward said with a smile. Jack gave her an encouraging look as Edward gently guided his daughter forward, the little girl's eyes as wide as saucers. Renesmee cautiously settled down next to the wolf in the straw and Jack glanced at the box of gloves. It was all he needed to do to have her reaching to put them on, and again it never failed to amaze him how fast she picked things up. The most skilled of all the pups Jack had known hadn't been as observant as her.

"When her side heaves again, you're going to help pull," Jack told her quietly, guiding her hands to tiny hooves barely the size of her palms. "You're strong enough to crush its legs so be careful."

"Me? _Just_ me?" Renesmee squeaked, and Jack hid his smile.

"Yes, Renesmee," he said quietly, settling back on his heels and half closing his eyes. "Just you. You may want to be pulling now."

This earned another squeak and Renesmee pulled, looking absolutely terrified. She looked terrified all the way up until the foal was completely born, wet and weak, and when it staggered trying to stand up, the tiny thing fell across her lap, butting its head into hers. Eyeball to eyeball, predator to prey, the little horse stared at the little girl. Jack felt it roll through him, those deep and complicated emotions, but instead of growing hard and breakable, his imprint softened more than he had ever known. So that's what it felt like, her forgetting to be concerned with the world around her. Jack had wondered.

Renesmee turned and beamed at them all. "Daddy, Mister Jack, Mister Rico…_look_!"

"Jack, she's getting up," Rico warned them, and Jack carefully moved the foal away from Renesmee and gave it a gentle push towards mare, who was climbing up to her own feet.

It was time best spent alone between the animals, so after Jack and Renesmee stripped away the gloves and cleaned their arms off, the four all slipped outside, Jack's imprint walking backwards as she continued to stare at the newborn foal. They had only closed the door and been outside a moment when the little girl burst out into a flood of excited words.

"Daddy, I could hear its heartbeat and it was so fast and it kind of made me hungry but I didn't want to eat it because it was so cute and little and did you see it fall and bump our heads? Daddy, did you see?" Renesmee was tugging on her father's hand with every word, and the vampire began laughing.

"Slow down, Nessie," Edward grinned, ruffling her curls. "And yes, I saw. You did very well, honey."

Bella had been waiting outside, and when she joined her husband and daughter, Renesmee turned and grabbed Bella's hand too. "Mommy! I helped Mister Jack deliver the foal, just like Grandpa does with babies in the hospital and I didn't hurt it at all and it was a black horse even though its mommy was a tan horse. I think that it must be a really nice one because it didn't try to kick me or bite me at all and I think it's a girl and look what you missed!" As she showed Bella excitedly, the female vampire cringing a little at visuals Bella had gone outside to avoid, Jack slipped off to the side, where Rico stood leaning against the fence, a lazy grin on his face.

"She's cute," Rico decided, lighting up a cigarette, before calling over. "Hey kid! What're you gonna name her?"

Renesmee paused midsentence and looked Rico, her eyes once again wide as she looked to Jack for proof that it was true. "Mister Jack? Can I really name the horse?"

Jack smiled a little. "Yes, but a creature's name is its own," he told her calmly. "You must listen, and it will let you know what that name is to be." The half-vampire child processed that and then looked longingly at the lean-to, so Jack nodded. "If you stay off to the side so they can know each other, it will be fine."

Renesmee grinned and kept hold of Bella's hand, forgetting to ask permission from her parents as she dragged her mother back towards the barn. Her father trailed after them, looking a little bemused. Rico smirked and pulled his new and crisp looking cowboy hat down over his eyes.

"I've never heard that one before," Rico chuckled, his voice so low that the child wouldn't be able to hear it. "You usually just name them 'brown horse' or 'dumb horse'."

Jack half closed his eyes and murmured placidly, "My listening skills are not as good as they once were. Had you noticed that the vampire is back?"

"The Volturi one? Yeah, he's been hanging around whenever you split," Rico spat. "You'd think since you've only got half your head stuffed with wool these days that you would have known it. You gotta start watching yourself more when that little girl's around, Jack, or someone's gonna find you in a ditch somewhere. You run with a bad crowd."

"My Alpha would beg to differ," Jack decided smugly, extremely proud of the crowd he ran with now, and Rico barked out a laugh.

"Yeah," the vampire smirked. "Your Alpha would. Anyways, I know you don't celebrate pale face holidays, but Merry Christmas, old friend. I'm going to go hunting, and then maybe to see if I can put out a few fires before they start."

Jack closed his eyes and nodded, and by the time that they were open again, the vampire was gone and a new one had taken its place. Edward's eyes were narrowed, and it occurred to Jack that the male must have better hearing than his mate. Rico was proud of his ability to keep his thoughts contained enough to keep the other vampire out of his head, so either the Rico was slipping or Edward was more skilled than Jack had given him credit for.

"Is my daughter in danger because of her association with you?" Edward asked point blank, and Jack shook his head.

"No," he said calmly. "The Cold One we were speaking of has no interest in me or my Pack, and Rico can handle himself. But I would have your seer watch that one. My imprint lives with your coven, and if it turns its interest your coven's way, I will have to kill it."

Edward frowned at that and it was a different kind of frown than Jack was used to being directed his way. "There is danger in attacking the Volturi, Jack. They _will_ kill you because of it."

"Will they?" Jack murmured placidly, looking up at the night sky and the expanse of stars. "I'm to go to your coven tomorrow night for my Christmas present. I wonder which one she's giving me…?"

The Cold One stared and then laughed as he leaned against the fence in the place where Rico had stood. "Are you that dangerous or are you that careless, wolf?" Jack just smiled and listened to the soft feminine laughter coming from the lean-to, not bothering in replying.

After all, they both already knew the answer.

* * *

It was Samantha's first Christmas without her mother there with her.

As sick as her mother had been before she died, as many hospitals as they had spent holidays in, it was still hard to face this holiday alone. But you see, Samantha wasn't alone. She had someone who knew her, knew her far better than she realized most of the time, and so when she had tried to convince Embry that she really didn't need a Christmas tree, or the decorations, Embry hadn't been confused. He hadn't asked why, and he hadn't fought her on it. Instead he had given her a hug and had told her he loved her and had gone to the dojo.

There was a standing punching bag in the corner of the living room now, strung with glowing lights and popcorn strings, with a paper star taped on top. It may have been the best thing that Embry had ever done for her.

Except for the occasionally scheduled private lesson, Embry had closed the dojo for the whole week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, justifying it by saying that no one ever made it to training anyways. Samantha was pretty sure that he was just exhausted, and since she had the time off from school, he wanted to spend it with her. Curled up on the couch in her boyfriend's arms, Samantha idly played with the tooth the Pack had given her, letting it dangle on its leather strings as she watched the Christmas lights shift from soft white to multi-colored hues.

They had turned the house lights off completely, and the resulting gently lit darkness was calming for Samantha. She had felt so tightly strung lately, jazzed up more than normal, as if she had too much caffeine in her system all the time. But moments like this, moments where the rest of the world was out there, and it was only her and Embry in here…well, those were the times when she felt the most relaxed, the most at peace.

"You smell good," Embry told her quietly, shifting slightly behind her. He had been dozing, his breath warm on her neck and his arms looped lightly around her, but he was smiling now against her hair. Something must have woken him up, although Samantha doubted that it had been her. Embry's daily fight to keep his wolf in check wore him down, wore him out, and he slept deeply when he did get the chance to rest these days. Embry nuzzled her neck with her nose and Samantha's lips curved as she set Fang down on the floor and rolled onto her back, her head pillowed on Embry's bicep as she looked at him. His eyes were a little blacker than usual, but he was Embry, her Embry, even with a little more wolf attached than the rest of the Pack.

"Daily scrubbing does a body good," Samantha joked, her fingertips tracing down his chest. He rarely wore shirts at home, so it was almost worth the loss of the view to get to remember what he was hiding beneath those clothes. His chest moved as he chuckled, and Samantha glanced up to see Embry watching her with a slightly smug expression.

"You can take that off, you know," he told her, his voice softening sexily as his own eyes swept down her form. It was instinct really, what made her tip her chin back and offer her throat to him, something she had been doing since she had realized that he was wolf and responded to things like that. Embry groaned softly in his own throat and bent his head down to her. Instead of the small possessive nips that she was used to, Embry simply placed a soft kiss against her vulnerable flesh and then laid his head back down near hers.

Samantha ran a palm up his chest and over his shoulder, enjoying the feel of his hard muscles before hooking her hand behind his head. The shifting lights were lulling her into a peacefulness that was close to sleep, and Samantha closed her eyes.

"You got a letter today."

His voice was a low rumble in her ear, and Samantha's eyes opened slightly as she turned a little, her leg slipping between his for warmth. "Hmm? What kind of letter?"

"The kind from Stanford," Embry said softly, and Samantha grew still. It took her a moment to look at him, but when she did, Embry was watching her with kind chocolate eyes, only slightly darkened. His expression was sad, but fiercely proud. "You never told me your scholarship was to that elite of school, Sims."

She flushed but held his gaze. "I didn't want to jinx it, Embry," she told him softly. "What kind of letter? Did you read it?"

Embry shook his head, a smile playing over his lips. "No, it was your mail, sweetheart. But the words 'Admissions Packet' printed on the front gave it away. I must have stared at that thing for ten minutes, trying to get my head around it." He threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her then, a long slow kiss that sent tingles all the way down to her toes and then back up to her heart. A heart that clenched almost painfully when he whispered against her lips, "I am _so_ proud of you, Samantha…I'm so proud of you that I don't even know what to say. You're going to _Stanford_. Hell, honey, I couldn't even make it through high school."

"That wasn't your fault, Embry," Samantha immediately defended him, and Embry chuckled at the vehemence in her voice when she added, "You've made so much of yourself, all on your own, too. Your dojo is amazing, and…and it doesn't matter, Embry. High school is overrated anyways."

Her boyfriend's quiet laughter rumbled in her ear at that, and he pressed a kiss to her earlobe, inhaling again as he smoothed a hand down between her breasts. It wasn't intended to arouse her, it was intended to relax her, and Samantha had to admit that getting stroked like a cat had its allure.

"What can I do?" Embry asked as she softened beneath his attentions, his voice appealing to something deep inside of her. Something that loved him and wanted him, something that had chosen him. _Hers_. He was hers. "What can I do to help you? Do you need…I don't even know what to call it, Sims," he chuckled at his own ignorance. "Tuition money? Admission fees? Anything? What can I do, sweetheart?"

Samantha knew how tight they were, how each week was an exercise in keeping their heads above water financially, so she understood exactly what he was offering. It was hard knowing someone loved you that much, that they would make their life harder just to make your own better. Something inside of her shifted, pushed closer to the surface, left her shaky with her feelings for him.

Was it even healthy to love someone the way she loved him?

"No, Embry," she managed to say, her voice wavering slightly. "No, the scholarship provides everything, it's a full ride. I just have to keep my grades up when I'm there, and they will pay for everything. But thank you…more than you realize, _thank you_."

Her face must have given something away, or maybe it was in her tone or her scent, because Embry's eyes fastened on her. "Sims? Are you okay?" Embry asked gently, his knuckles brushing her jaw, silently asking her to look at him again. She gave him a weak smile and nodded.

"Yeah, it's just…a lot sometimes," she admitted, tightening her hold on the back of his neck. "Just when I think that I've gotten used to you, how good you are to me, you say something like that."

"I love you," he told her simply, his lips curving as if he thought she was cute in her own ignorance. His nose brushed hers fondly before he kissed her lower lip, sucking gently before grinning against her mouth. "Anytime you need more proof, just let me know."

Samantha couldn't stop her own smile, couldn't help tugging him down to her, couldn't resist hooking her leg over his hip and relishing how his weight felt on top of her. Embry always worried about squishing her beneath his larger body, but Samantha was pretty sure of all the ways to die, that would be one of the best. He shifted his balance to one elbow, reaching behind his head to pull his shirt off, and Samantha's hands helped push the material up his torso. Even after nearly a year, she still hadn't become fully used to his body, the lines and planes of definition that never failed to make her stare. Embry was slightly heavier than he had been a year ago, lean slabs of muscle thickening in maturity, looking a little more like Jared and Paul did than he did Seth, Collin, or Brady. Either way, he was exactly what she wanted.

Sometimes it was hard to believe that life had taken them here, but despite how rough that road had been, she wouldn't change it for the world.

Her shirt had been peeled off, and his lips and tongue were tracing along scars that she had gained along that road. A scar across her chest from where the vampire venom had burned into her skin. Others that the dead Alpha's knife had made, including a wide one across her lower abdomen.

_He had sunk it into her belly just to hear her scream, because the Alpha's woman had died the same way and it was only fitting. But her cries were lost beneath the roar of the wolf still trying to get to her. It was too late, Brady, this would kill her, it was too late. And when he had pulled the knife back out…_

Samantha jerked as the flashback hit her unexpectedly, but it wasn't the first time that she'd had one while in Embry's arms. He knew what to do now, and he rolled off of her faster than a normal human could have possibly moved. On her back, on her stomach or side she was vulnerable, so in rolling Embry hauled her on top of him and pushed her upwards, so that she was in the dominate position straddling his hips.

His hands were already tucked beneath his head and his muscles were so relaxed that he managed to look limp. As she sucked in a hard, half strangled breath, Embry crooned softly to her, "You're okay. We're here, so you're okay."

Samantha looked down at her stomach and put a hand over the scar reflexively, panting a little as she shivered. She had felt…she had felt them…

_And when he had pulled the knife back out, the Alpha had twisted it…_

It was instinctual to reach out to a different Alpha, an Alpha that for her privacy had closed the imprint bond down as much as he could without hurting her. Her grab was rough, clumsy, but desperate, and then there was Jake. Warm, heavy, strong. In her head and in her soul, and as much as she hated how it overwhelmed her, it pushed those memories away. And then, because she wanted to be in this moment with Embry instead of being back in a place where her flashing memories didn't match what had happened anyways, Samantha let go of Jake. For a moment he resisted, and then the Alpha's presence slipped away, back down to the usual contained steadiness that was their bond to each other.

Sometimes Jake had a hard time letting go. Something was bothering him today, something even Jake didn't understand, and he'd been pulling at her own calmness to steady himself. It was a give and take between them to balance each other out, and it was working okay so far, but he had reached for the imprint bond too many times to steady himself today. It wasn't really surprising that he had reacted so quickly and been loath to let the connection slip away.

Embry was still crooning to her as her shoulders slumped and she let her forehead drop down to press against his chest. Blindly, Samantha reached for his hand and Embry gave it to her. She pressed it against her belly, against the scar, and exhaled heavily. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly as she settled back along his body. Sorry she had ruined their moment. Sorry that he had to accommodate her. Sorry she had to turn to Jake instead of him.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Embry rumbled gently, shifting her shoulders to his chest so that he could hold her protectively, his fingers splayed across her abdomen. "Everything's okay."

Everything _was_ okay. After all, she couldn't have survived that wound without hospitalization, and here she was, right as rain. Cassie had called it being bent but not broken. Samantha could agree with that.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Embry asked, and Samantha shook her head. What was she going to say? That she was hallucinating things that had never happened?

"No," she said, sighing. "No, I just want to not have that happen anymore."

Embry dropped a kiss to her shoulder, and then rested his chin against it. "Maybe talking about it would make them not happen as much, sweetheart," he reminded her, and Samantha closed her eyes in answer. Embry took the hint, and they laid there quietly for a long time, his hand on her stomach, rubbing small circles on the flesh. He would have to patrol in a couple hours, but right now, there was no other place that he'd rather be.

His fingers every once in a while tugged at the men's ring that she wore around her neck, and she wished that she could give him that commitment that he wanted so badly. Samantha knew that Embry wanted to get married, although sometimes she wondered how much he wanted to marry her, and how much he just wanted to give someone the life that he had never been given.

He wanted a home, a wife, and children. The best thing that Samantha could give him was her, and a way out when "her" got too tough, or if he imprinted.

"Embry," Samantha said softly, turning her head so that she could see him. "When I go to school, I'm going to study sports medicine. I decided that the other day, because I think that for what we're doing, it will give the dojo more credibility. Maybe I'll take some business classes so you can focus on teaching. I know how much you hate the paperwork part. And when I come home, me and you…we're going to take on the world, okay? Just me and you, if you still want to, for as long as you want to."

Embry smiled, his heart and his loyalty in his eyes, and then he leaned over her and kissed her again, this time deeper. Limbs entangled, she had his answer. He would still want to.

Their sex play had been getting rougher, more aggressive and more interesting, but that night was quiet words and slow hands caressing skin that wasn't used to such gentle care. Embry had spent a lot of time having casual sex with multiple partners, so he tended to drift their lovemaking towards the fun and the exciting, the passionate and the intensely pleasurable. It was different having him take it this slow, as slow as he had the day he had come back from Mexico, their first time together.

He didn't try to work her into multiple releases, Embry had nothing to prove to her anymore. Samantha wanted him, accepted him for who and what he was, and she wondered if maybe she was only now truly starting to see her lover relax and let himself trust her. Embry would drive her crazy another night, another time, but not right now. His guard was down, and it made Samantha want to barricade them both from the world, to keep this Embry to herself and never let anyone hurt him again.

For the first time ever, Embry finished before she did, and when he groaned in disappointment, she stopped his apologies by kissing him heatedly. The need for release, for _him_ was still twisting her, and it was unique for Samantha to be left wanting more. And for some reason, instead of being frustrated, she relished in that feeling. It had taken time to get used to but Samantha liked needed him. She _loved_ needing him, and that should have been frightening, but it wasn't. He'd make it up to her later, but for now, Embry dozed, his body relaxed and content.

Samantha's eyes reflected the shifting Christmas lights as she gazed across the room, not wanting to sleep when her mate was vulnerable and at rest. The wolf tooth dangled from the strings in her hand.

You know, just in case.


	12. Chapter 10

A/N So, this is intended to be read in the jarring manner it is written. There's a **violence warning** for this chapter, so be prepared. Thanks to my reviewers: _cylobaby, The all mighty and powerfulM, lilred-07, Aleena Kiwiana, WorldsAngel, KerryH, Ninadoll, shelbron, Buffyk0604, 82c10akaLynn, MadToTheBone1, hilja, moani-sama, MargotTenser, laurazuleta18, SARAH DB, Elvira Iula, scrapalicious, chickadee74, StealthLiberal, eskimogirl58, _and _TheNotoriousLIP_. You all are wonderful! *hugs*

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Ten

_It was autumn in the land of the Kwòlíyoť, bringing with it deep peaceful colors and cool, calming days. _

_Qa'al would have preferred to spend those days with his lips pressed to Tuktukadi's belly, whispering his love to his growing child as he both teased and spoiled his woman mercilessly. He would end up spending most of them with her brother, Tupkuk, instead._

_When the child was to be born, Qa'al was planning on not being available to anyone but Tuktukadi and his Alpha, an Alpha who was still trying to convince Qa'al that he needed to sit down and properly trade for Tuktukadi, and let T'sikáti finally have some measure of peace. A slave could not be freed, nor could they be married, but at least if Qa'al owned his woman instead of T'sikáti, it would bring a formality to the arrangement. _

_Perhaps T'sikáti should have said such outside of Tuktukadi's hearing, but the Alpha had been deeply distracted as of late and as such had not been quick enough to see Qa'al growing grin or the gleam of indignant anger in the slave woman's eyes. T'sikáti wasn't used to having things thrown at him, especially not by pregnant slaves who cast him and Qa'al out of their own longhouse, shrieking insults at them eloquently in both the Quileute and the Makah tongues. Confused and more than a little out of his depth, T'sikáti had given up pride and had wisely fled._

_The old wolf found his Alpha's words amusing, and thought that for an Alpha, T'sikáti knew far too little about women. Qa'al hoped for many children from Tuktukadi's belly, and she had only recently begun to calm down about her state of belonging to T'sikáti. To be owned by Qa'al would only reignite her flames, and Qa'al was pretty sure that there was no point in owning a woman who already sent him on her daily errands anyways. She would never forgive Qa'al a mistake like purchasing her, would never let him approach her again, and Qa'al was pretty certain that the parts of his woman he loved best, the parts that would fill the end of his life with contentment and children and peace, required at least _some_ form of proximity._

_His slave was growing moodier and more demanding by the day, insisting that her owner _and_ Qa'al cater to her, so T'sikáti merely grumbled good-naturedly and found somewhere else to sleep for a while. At least the Alpha had tried. When Tuktukadi began running Qa'al out as well, apparently there was only so much yipping at her stomach from a grown man that she could take, Qa'al decided to spend his time focusing on the training of her brother. _

_At least that one's bite wasn't nearly as sharp as hers could be. _

_The pup was a fast learner, skilled and intelligent, if a bit quick to anger or haste. It was clear that the half-Makah youth felt his muddied bloodlines were an embarrassment, and so he insisted on following the ways of the Tlokwali to the last word, to prove to his brothers and sisters that he was one of them, and that he belonged. So it was that aspect about the pup which Qa'al focused on in his training, to teach Tupkuk that there was more to the ways than just the rules, that there was a purpose behind an action. If one only looked straight ahead, he could be flanked easily. If one could not think for himself, decide for himself on a matter, then one would never be whole, for all that he was easily liked by the people around him._

_Qa'al taught Tupkuk that they might be Tlokwali, but they were men too, and it was not enough to ignore the man and sink into the wolf spirit and its ways. The wolf in Tupkuk was strong, full of potential if a bit standoffish and uncomfortable in such a large pack. But that was the wolf, only half of the whole. What kind of _man_ was it that Tupkuk would be? _

_The pup wanted to be powerful, felt the deep desire to solidify his place within the Tlokwali, didn't seem to understand that he already had done just that. Tupkuk was the first to agree when asked to guard their lands and he was the last to crawl home, no matter how tired his paws might be. He would be the first to stand up for a brother and the last to back down. He would fight to the front when they caught scent of a Cold One, wanted his jaws to be the ones to take the Cold One to ground, would not be satisfied until he felt his duty as Tlokwali was fulfilled. This was the man Tupkuk wanted to be, one who did well, and who mattered. One who could look to the others around him and know with certainty that they were all one and the same. _

_It was this very reason that Qa'al held the pup back one night, and led him to the top of a cliff to watch their brothers destroy the enemy instead. The need to hunt had been deeply rooted in this one, and Qa'al sat close to the pup's side as Tupkuk quivered and fought the need to join them. Finally the youth shifted into his human form and crouched naked on the stones and dirt, watching the Cold One be ripped apart by jaws meant for that purpose and that purpose alone, his eyes hungry for a kill that had already been made. He was waiting to be guided, for he always listened to every word that Qa'al said, even if he didn't always understand or agree, and so it was that Qa'al shifted from brindled wolf to man, and rested on his heels easily._

_"Look at what is left of the Cold One down there, brother and soon to be kin. Do you know why they are our enemies?" Qa'al asked quietly, as far below the Tlokwali surged around their kill, shredding the pieces to smaller bits simply because they could._

_"Yes, Qa'al. Because they hurt the people of our tribe," Tupkuk replied firmly, having memorized the stories from his earliest days as Tlokwali. "We kill them so they cannot do so again."_

_"Ah, but do you know why _you_ kill them, Tupkuk?" Qa'al wondered, tilting his head to the side as he looked at the youth. _

_Tupkuk frowned, confused. "They are our enemies," he stated firmly. "So I _must_ kill them."_

_"Must you?" Qa'al asked, raising an eyebrow. "Must you kill that which you can run off, frighten away? That which might never come back if given the opportunity?"_

_The pup didn't know, had never thought about it before. They watched as the Tlokwali gathered up the pieces of the Cold One and set fire to it, the Tlokwali a silent witness as their enemy burned away. It was only when the Cold One was ashes that the Beta led his wolves away, and Qa'al watched the wind blow those ashes up, taking them far, far across the earth. _

_"We kill them because that is how we are made, Tupkuk," Qa'al finally said, a note of sadness in his voice. "Because it is who we are designed to be. The Cold Ones do not know how to restrain their hunger for our people, and as such we do not know how to restrain our hunger for them. We darken our paint with the ashes of their burning bodies, and we wait for the next one, the next day. They could never take another Kwòlíyoť life and we would still hunger to kill them, every single one, if they passed too closely to our lands."_

_"What do you mean, Qa'al?"_

_The old wolf pressed his fingers into the dirt and then tapped that earth against his chest. It was his signal that the words he spoke were to be listened to, his cadence of one who had sat at the fires of their people for countless nights, one who had earned the truth that he spoke through blood and sweat and pain._

_"What I mean," Qa'al murmured quietly, "Is that if you were to look inside yourself, and _why_ you kill them, then you would understand why you need to be able to stand back and stay away. If we cannot control the need to kill, then we are no better than they are, brother. And we will never be."_

_Qa'al stood and the pup rose with him, as the older wolf gazed upon the ocean and the mountains, and the land. "The earth forces back the rolling sea, and the sea continues to advance and cut away at the land, but the land stands firm. It is only the land that grows too angry with the sea that stretches out too far, that perches precariously over the water and weakened, falters and falls into its grasp. This is the way of the wolf, and the Cold Ones, to advance and cut away at each other, never ending. But to be Tlokwali, those of man _and_ the wolf, there must be a balance. The reason of the man, the man that knows himself, tempers the instinct of the wolf."_

_The older wolf turned and looked at Tupkuk pointedly. "The one that hunts in front must be able to fall backwards. The powerful must understand the weak, and accept their importance in that place. You wish to be powerful brother, and you will be, for many lifetimes. But only if you can learn to know yourself, and know how to restrain the needs of both the man and the wolf."_

_The youth seemed distressed as he thought on this, and then finally grew relaxed. "How do I learn to control that need, Qa'al?" he asked, his faith in his shaman's teachings etched into his face. "How do I make sure I am never the kind that kills from mindless need?" Qa'al clasped his soon to be kin on the shoulder, and gave Tupkuk a grin. _

_"I was hoping," Qa'al chuckled, "That you could tell me." _

_Then he lifted his face to the night sky, found his favorite star, the one next to T'sikáti's favorite star, and he smiled._

* * *

The Third didn't make it home for Christmas. If he had, a lot of things would have changed.

Instead of making it home for Christmas, the Third worked on a fishing boat up until six in the morning before he was finally on leave. His boat had made it in later than the others, and by the time Paul was finally able to grab his bag and his cash and call this job done with, Jared and Quil had already been waiting for nearly a day. Most of the deckhands would stay on, the fleets needed to keep running to keep sound, but some of the hands only worked a few months out of the year, and this was when they were going home.

The Third's orders had been that no matter who was done when, they all went back to Washington together, and so that was that. There was a Pack between Anchorage and La Push, and Paul had learned his lesson about other Packs' territories well. Instead of heading straight home, they took the long way.

They ran east, to Dawson, keeping on that side of the Yukon River as they angled southeast towards Watson Lake. If they had headed straight down to Prince George, it would have taken them closer to Calgary than Paul wanted, so they cut back towards the coast at Prince Rupert. It was the same path they had taken up to Alaska the first time, and it had kept them safely out of two different Pack's ranges. It would have done so again if the Juneau Alpha hadn't been waiting for them. Paul didn't like Alphas that weren't his own, and he didn't like Alphas even more when he had two weaker wolves at his back to protect. Paul disliked Alphas the most when they made it so that he couldn't get home to his imprint on time for Christmas, no matter what happened, and how hard he had ran to try and compensate. It was too bad Paul couldn't get home for Christmas.

After all, if Paul had been there, a _lot_ would have changed.

* * *

The sea was angry that day, crashing into the beach as if determined to break it down to nothing. Two figures walked along the sand, fingers lightly entwined as they watched the foaming water smack into half submerged boulders, massive rocks that had fallen from the cliffs over time, now worn smooth from the water that splashed over them in bursts of white sprays.

When he was younger, Shane Qahla had swam out to the rocks, had climbed on them and stared defiantly at the ocean, laughing and daring it to try and take him down. And it had, many times, the powerful waves sweeping his feet from beneath him and sending him falling back into the water, although even scraped and bleeding, Shane had always found the courage to climb up once again. These days, Shane was content to stay drier up here on the sand. It may have been tamer, but he had other challenges in his life that he facing down courageously, other, deep waters that had swept him away.

The woman holding his hand seemed happy today, happier than she normally looked. Washed out to sea, and laughing all the way, Shane couldn't help but smile and stare at her when she wasn't looking. It had been a long time since Casey had truly been happy. For a man who had been in love with her for a while now, even scraped and bleeding from her uncertainty regarding him, Shane knew she was worth the pain.

Casey had told him often that he was a good person, and that he could do better than her, and that she needed to be with people right now that didn't really care what she did or didn't do. People that didn't expect much from her, that way she could focus on being herself and not what someone else wanted her to be. People like Joe Carter, who she could have a good time with, who wouldn't give two shits if she rolled right out of bed and walked away or if she stayed for a week or two. There was no pressure with that kind of man, and if it got a little lonely, at least she wasn't letting someone down.

Casey had a habit of letting good people down. Good people like Shane Qahla, which was why she had never let things go beyond some necking in the parking lot and one particularly nice afternoon when even the regulars wouldn't brave the weather and Shane had found fun ways to warm up even the coldest bartender.

Shane thought that was bullshit. He'd watched her break her own heart trying to be perfect in her marriage, watched her break her heart again during her drawn out divorce with that pale-face asshole in Forks. Shane had run up a phone bill far beyond what he could actually afford just trying to be a good friend to her, but Shane wanted more and he didn't try to hide it. He wanted Casey out of Carter's bed and into his own, and he wanted to show her that he wasn't just a good person. Shane wanted to show Casey that he was a good _man_ and that he could be _her_ good man. A man that didn't need to twist her into knots about herself just to prove that he was superior, or one that was still in love with a dead woman and who never had even seen Casey as more than a pair of tits and a good lay in the first place.

It was hard being in love with someone like Casey. Shane Qahla was still in love with her anyways.

"Are you okay, Shane?" Casey asked as they walked along the beach, glancing up at him, and the tall man gave her a smile.

"Yeah, just thinking, Case," Shane said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She stiffened like she always did when he reached for her, but then she softened and leaned into his side.

Casey wasn't used to affection, didn't know how to deal with it well, so Shane was taking it slow. Kind words, a steady presence, small things that showed that he cared. A few months ago she wouldn't have tucked herself closer, using him as warmth against the chill winter air, but today she just snuggled in as tight to his ribcage as his jacket would allow. Diane Qahla had been disappointed that Shane had forgone part of his family's celebration to pull Casey out here on a walk with him, but Casey had been too shy to come to his parent's place for Christmas, and Shane couldn't bear to see her spend the time alone. Her Christmas present was a silver necklace, the little box still wrapped and tucked in his front pocket for safekeeping. If his only Christmas present today was her arm wrapping around his waist, then Shane already knew his Christmas was as good as he could have asked for.

"What are you thinking about?" Casey asked playfully, and as she bumped her shoulder into him, Shane pretended to stagger. Casey yelped and then burst out laughing as Shane dragged her closer to the water, the waves crashing roughly on the shore.

"Do you really want to know, Casey?" Shane teased, giving her a wink as he managed to get her a little closer to his side. He knew she was older than him, and that the roughness of those years was etched into her face, but when Casey blushed beneath his attention, she was the prettiest woman Shane had ever seen. He liked how her hair looked blowing into her eyes as they walked along the beach. He liked that he had walked this beach with so many girls, but he was finally walking it with her.

Casey was divorced now. It had been long and messy but it was finally over, as of a few weeks ago. Casey had been spent these weeks being harshly defensive and vulnerably weepy, and it was only now that she was starting to calm down. Shane didn't want to push her, but he also didn't want to sit back and wait, because when Casey chose a man for good, she stuck with him. If she chose Joe Carter, Shane might as well throw in the towel and walk away.

Shane wasn't planning on walking away from Casey. Qahla men liked the ladies, but when they decided to love one, they put everything they had in that love. They didn't know how to love any other way.

Casey was watching him out of the corner of her eye, so Shane took a chance and slowed to a stop, using his arm around her shoulders to guide her to his chest. The wind was blowing her hair across her face and into her mouth and eyes, and Casey laughed, trying to push it away.

During the winter, the winds always blew off of the ocean and moved inland, sweeping counterclockwise in a northerly direction. But occasionally during the Pacific Northwest winters, the pressure systems would change, causing northern winds to blow south across the land. In the last years, patrol patterns had been set to accommodate the standard weather patterns, to use the wind to bring the slightest scent of danger to sensitive wolf nostrils, but after the debacle with Claire and Sims last spring, Paul now accommodated for the shifts in weather, and had worked into the patrols a shift in pattern on those days that the wind blew the wrong way. Before Paul had left, he had reminded Embry to keep an eye on the weather for changes. Embry had, and he had ordered patrols shifted twice now, but the Pack was exhausted from being undermanned these last two months, and Embry had been getting less sleep than most.

On Christmas Eve, Embry should have checked the weather, but he had forgotten. That was the day that the winds decided to change.

Shane didn't know that. All Shane knew was that Casey looked beautiful with the wind blowing her hair across her face and over his arm, and then Shane was kissing her. Even if Casey stiffened the way she always did, it was only for a moment, and then she was kissing him back. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding onto him tighter than he had ever seen her hold onto Carter, and Shane wrapped her up in his embrace as his lips brushed over hers. Her body felt so good pressed up against his, and Shane groaned, deepening the kiss. She smelled like the ocean air all around them, mixed with the honey of her shampoo, and when she made the softest noise of encouragement, it was all Shane could do to not drag her down to the sand and make love to her the way he had always wanted to make love to her.

He started to pull back, but her hands kept him pulled down to her, and when she breathed his name on her lips, he had to kiss them again just to know how sweet that could taste.

For a moment the world was perfect, absolutely blissfully perfect. And then, because the world isn't perfect and life is hard and this isn't a fairy tale, Casey pulled away. She didn't just pull away, she staggered away, giving Shane a look of such horror that his heart broke right then and there, although instead of falling into pieces it settled deep into his stomach and twisted itself, as if becoming so many knots.

Shane Qahla died thinking the woman he loved was rejecting him. At least he died quickly. Casey didn't get to say the same.

Casey's horror hadn't been because of Shane. In fact, if Casey had been given a chance to think back on her life, on the good moments and the best ones, so many of the best ones had involved Shane. And he had never known that she had loved him too, because she had loved him enough to try and resist his attentions. Casey had hoped that he would get over his crush on her and move on, and she would die still convinced that Shane could have done better. Good men like him always could.

She wouldn't have time to scream that someone was suddenly standing behind Shane, as if appearing out of nowhere, dripping wet with a carefully tied and sealed plastic trash bag in his hand. His eyes were black as night and his fangs…By the time Casey jerked back in fright, the man's hand was already on Shane's head, and as Shane stared sadly at the one he had wanted so badly, there was a twisting and an awful cracking noise.

Shane's killer didn't even glance at the kindest man that Casey had ever known, instead choosing to idly toss Shane's now limp body off to the side and away.

Casey opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, because those eyes had locked onto her, and most beautiful face she had ever seen was somehow keeping her feet in place. The vampire…_it was a_ _vampire_…licked his lips and pushed the trash bag into her hands.

"Here," he said in a smooth voice. "Hold this for me please."

It was the fact that beneath the thick plastic she felt a shoe, attached to something longer and heavier, that finally made Casey scream. Unfortunately the vampire's hand was clamped over her mouth, and the noise ended when he shoved his hand into her chest and pried her open like an oyster shell, biting directly into her heart. So filled with adrenaline, that was how humans tasted the best and what would make him strongest and fastest, Neel drank greedily as the woman died. This was the most brilliant moment, the most beautiful moment, the moment between life and death, and it was always better to eat in luxury if one was going to eat at all.

Neel's maker had taught him that.

Shane Qahla died never having the girl of his dreams in his bed, but in death he still was able to hold her in his arms. Neel might have been a monster, but he was a hopeless romantic. He made sure to arrange Casey in Shane's loving embrace before picking back up his plastic bag. The scent of wet dog lingered in the air, the wolves were patrolling in a loop from the north to the south, and the wind told the vampire what it hid from them. He had about a minute before they would be on him.

Neel grinned and wiped off his mouth against the leg he carried. He had only needed thirty seconds anyways.

* * *

It was a Saturday, meaning that the pups should have taken the first twelve hour shift with Leah, and that the other three top ranking wolves would be running the second shift. However, holidays had always been the worst time to try and get the Pack out of their homes without grief, Collin and Brady particularly. Collin because his family loved him so damn much that they freaked out about it, and Brady because the Jennings clan always gathered together for the holidays, and anything that made Brady stand out only came back to hurt him in the end. The older the Pack became in general made it easier, but it was still difficult.

No one liked to be away from their families on the holidays, families that didn't know about the Pack and wouldn't understand.

Knowing this, and knowing that their families were the most capable of understanding the reasons why they were gone, Jake and the Clearwaters had always taken the brunt of patrols on the holidays, with Sam and recently Embry able to make it easier. Add Jack on top of that and despite being short staffed from the three wolves up in Alaska, the Pack finally had wolves to run on Christmas time, meaning Seth wouldn't have to take a twenty-four hour patrol this year, that Jake might actually get to see his Dad and sister at some point on Christmas day, that Sue wouldn't be spending most of the day alone and lonely.

It was tempting to drop the patrol to two wolves for Christmas the way Jake had done for the better part of Thanksgiving, but he was still edgy, uncomfortable, feeling as if he was missing something and unable to find out what that something was. So he kept patrols to three wolves, asking Jack to run an extra shift for Collin and Sam a shift for Brady. Jack didn't celebrate Christmas and had nowhere to go until that night anyways, and they had run enough daytime patrols together that Leah, Sam, and Jack worked almost flawlessly as a team. Jack, still uncomfortable being deep within Quileute soil unless forced to by his Pack, kept his patrol to the very inside of the border, with Leah and Sam trading off the rest of the area as they grew bored with running the same laps over the same ground. Repetition can be deadly because it lulls the mind to complacency, and despite his experience, even Sam had a hard time not falling prey to the same fate.

Jack was keeping his thoughts to himself, although each time he passed the eastern point that was the closest to Forks, the ancient wolf's thoughts leaked out, mostly about his favorite stars in the sky. Leah was quieter than normal, she'd had another nightmare last night about someone important getting hurt, and she was tired of fighting with Jake all the time. It left her raw, and it was easier for her to just focus on the ground in front of her, the wind moving through her fur.

His mind wondering if he would ever get to quit phasing (Sam was growing tired of walking away from Emily every Christmas and watching her silently stuff her disappointment deep down inside), Sam was almost to First Beach when the scent hit him like a wrecking ball. Leech, so strong that it felt like the damn thing was almost on top of him, and then blood. So much blood and with it the stench of death.

For the first time they had failed their people. Someone had _died_.

It was Jack that howled the warning, the eerie sound rolling across the reservation like a siren, making heads snap up in alarm as Packmates simultaneously heard the cry. But it was Sam's howl, so full of anger that sent them flying from their homes, presents left abandoned on parents' laps. Someone had died, there was a leech and it was in horror that Sam phased human midstride, jerking on his shorts as he went running across First Beach as fast as he could. Sam didn't know he was yelling for Leah, the wolf closest to him, because the scent of leech was so powerful in his nostrils that Sam felt his stomach twist and his instincts told him that it was close, too close, that he needed to turn around and fight, to phase.

That's when he saw them, near the water. Funny, despite his certainty, Sam had prayed that somehow he had been wrong.

Sam saw Leah burst out of the trees on the other end of the beach, because while Sam was fast, Leah had always been faster, and she hadn't bothered with clothes. Naked, she got to a small lump on the ground next to the water before Sam did, and she let out a scream that was so full of rage that he jerked at the sound.

"Who is it?" Sam roared at her, flying down the beach, only to see her twist and burst into the lean grey wolf that was her other form. Leah flung herself back into the woods just as Sam got to…to the…to the…

Oh hell, it was _Shane_. It was Casey, and that hurt, but…but _Shane_…

Sam knew Shane Qahla, had once been best friends with Shane Qahla, had spent his life growing up side by side with Shane Qahla, and had often double dated with Jared's brother back when Sam and Leah had still been together. Shane had been like Jared, both men had always had a soft spot for people that seemed lost or in pain, and Shane had taken Leah's side in the break-up. Shane had dragged her to movies and concerts, anything to distract her, and the last time Shane had talked to Sam besides the clipped short answers Shane still addressed him with now, Shane had punched Sam in the face. That had been three years ago, after Shane had decided he didn't know Sam anymore, and that had been that.

Sam had hoped that one day they would have been friends again, or at least, been able to stay in the same room for longer than the few minutes it took Shane to find somewhere else to be. He had hoped that along with the rest of his life that he had lost, that one day he could get his friend back too, if he just tried hard enough. But that day would never come. Shane was dead.

Shane was dead, his neck broken, his face already turning pale as the blood stopped moving in his veins. And the person next to him…could have been anyone, she was so mangled, but Sam knew the scent of everyone on the reservation, and he knew the feelings behind Shane's eyes every time Shane had looked Casey's way. It was Casey, and she had been jerked open like a deer carcass before being pressed back to Shane's side. Arranged.

The leech had _arranged_ his dead best friend, like a goddamn _puppet_.

And it was that, the fact that the fucker hadn't just killed them, he had _played_ with them afterwards, that made Sam snap. It didn't matter if anyone could have seen him, it didn't matter because Sam phased where he stood, and like Leah, he plunged after that scent that had taken their people away. Once he phased, snarling and out of his mind in anger, the image of what this Cold One had done to _the family of their __**own**_ ripped through the Packmind and then Sam saw nothing but black and red. All across the reservation, the howls rang, piercing through the rushing winds and snowing skies.

The hunt was on.

* * *

"You know, for a girl who has spent her life in awkward, embarrassing moments, last night was the most awkward I've ever spent. I may have to stop pretend sleeping with you, Seth Clearwater."

Chancy never said hello, she always just launched right into conversations, and as he always did when her phone calls woke him from sleep, it took Seth a moment to process what she had said. Then the young man chuckled into his cell phone, smiling at his friend's droll comment as he yawned and relaxed back into his bed. Seth had been taking a very welcome Christmas nap when Chancy had called, but the buzzing of his cell on the dresser had woken him and seeing it was her calling had been enough to make him answer.

Seth would have to admit that he had a soft spot for Chancy Hoblin. It was located somewhere between his knowledge that one day he could imprint and his still strongly beating teenage heart.

"Really?" he yawned, stretching and tucking his arm behind his head comfortably. "Cause to be honest, Chance, that was my mom being nice. She only referred to my genitalia once in that whole spiel."

"She referred to _my_ genitalia multiple times, and she used the word 'grandpuppies'. My parents are still trying to figure that one out," the redhead snickered over the phone. Seth grinned in remembrance and then yawned again, wedging his cellphone between his pillow and his ear so that he could free a hand to rub his eyes sleepily.

"Think of it this way," Seth told her, twisting his neck so that it cracked pleasantly. "You could have spent a boring night at home, relaxing with your family and opening early Christmas presents, or you could have spent it with me. I'm sure spending it with me, circumstances aside, was much better. "

Seth was pretty sure that he could imagine Chancy's grin at that, pretended he could smell the polish he now could hear her brushing across her nails. "Your mother called you a narcissistic sex addict and recommended that my parents bolt me in at night and guard my door. I don't think that was particularly nice of her, Seth, although it was an amusingly accurate portrayal, at least the narcissistic part," Chancy snickered, and then she cursed. "Opps. I screwed up my thumb."

"What color?" he asked, not even trying to keep his voice was deepening the way it did when he was focusing in on her like this. "It's not red, is it?" he chuckled sexily. "I like red." He liked red, and he liked the thought of Chancy in red. Seth had spent too much time with people referring to him and Chancy sleeping together lately, and now the idea was permanently lodged into his brain. He'd been having a very pleasant dream involving him and her and the better part of the Forks cheerleading team. Seth was starting to think he was developing a thing for non-Quileute girls. In red.

"It's actually lime green, if you must know," Chancy told him, oblivious to the fact that he was currently imagining her in a cheerleading outfit. "Sims left it over here last week when we were studying, and for your information, I only wear red nail polish for the guys I'm actually sleeping with, not the pretend ones."

"I'm real," Seth chuckled, wiggling down deeper into the bedding and enjoying the sound of her voice on the phone. "One hundred percent real Seth, right here, honey."

Chancy snorted at that and then cursed again. "Damn, I keep messing up," she muttered, and he could hear her breathing change with her annoyance.

"Hey, Chancy," the Beta said her name, knowing that she wasn't paying any attention to him at this point.

"I swear, it's not that hard to stay in the lines, or at least it shouldn't be."

"Hey, Chancy…"

Yep she definitely wasn't paying attention to him because he could hear her unscrewing a bottle with some sort of sloshy liquid inside of it. Probably nail polish remover, if the fact that he could always smell it on her on Monday mornings after her weekend nail color changes was any indication. "Stupid lime green. Who wears lime green anyways?"

"Hey, _Chancy_?"

"Hmmm?"

Seth resisted the urge to laugh. Chancy didn't like being made fun of, it happened to her too much of the time, so he made sure to only do it when she could tell he was only teasing, not ridiculing her. "I got you a Christmas present, Chance," he told her with a grin. "But if you want it, you'll have to come over here and get it. Ma's got me on a Chancy Hoblin lockdown, which means she's watching me like a hawk."

"You're scared of your mommy, aren't you, Seth?" Chancy giggled, and he loved to hear how much happier she sounded today compared to yesterday.

"Damn right, I am, and you should be too, Miss Hoblin," Seth chuckled. "But since you're the only non-Pa…non-family member to get a Christmas present from me, you should feel very important, Chancy."

She snorted, the way she always did when he talked so grandly about himself, and he could just barely hear the soft sound of cotton rubbing over her nails. "I always feel very important, Seth, and what's a non-pa? Some sort of Quileute thing that I don't understand? Because, you know, you guys never let the outsider in on the joke."

"That's because you're a pale face, Chance," Seth smiled against the phone receiver as he scratched his bare chest idly. "From you, our deepest darkest Quileute secrets must be held." He could smell a ham roasting in the oven, and he wondered if he could convince Chancy to come over and get her present, for him to get her fed and get her home before he had to patrol at eight tonight. There was a little stuffed panda bear with a Santa hat on his dresser, holding a CD in its paws that Seth had made for her. He hoped she liked it, it had taken him hours of suffering in a shopping mall with an equally suffering Leah as he tried to find the perfect not-girlfriend Christmas present, and when that failed, hours to find the perfect stuffed thing to carry the CD.

"Har har, Seth," Chancy said, but he could hear the pleased note to her voice. "Did you really get me something, Eye Candy? Because I didn't get you anything but an inflated ego this year."

It took him a chance to register her words, and then Seth burst out laughing. "Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Chancy," he grinned. "Now get your ass over here already because I have to go somewhere tonight at-"

Seth felt his Packmates' horror snap through him right before the sound of Jack's howl filled the air. Jake must have been able to phase immediately because almost instantly the Alpha's fury slammed through the Pack like a tidal wave, making Seth gasp as he jumped out of bed and ran through the house, not thinking to give his mother a look as she stood pale and frightened in the kitchen, baking their family Christmas dinner.

"What the hell was _that_?" Chancy asked, as Seth heard the echoing of the howl on the other end. There were more howls now, as his Packmates all phased in, and from their tones, something terrible had just happened.

It was rare that Seth felt frightened, but his gut twisted and he yelled into the phone. "Chancy, stay in your house, and don't come over!"

"What? Seth, what is-?" Chancy started to say, but his snarl cut her off midsentence.

"Don't you _dare_ leave that house until I come get you! _**Stay there**_!" Seth wasn't Alpha, but he sure could put some weight behind his words. A normal human wouldn't have to do what he said, but the voice of authority usually made people listen, people like Chancy who weren't natural leaders. Praying that she would trust him, Seth tossed his phone into the bushes, ran three strides deeper into the forest, and phased.

The flowing river that was the Packmind, a place so comfortable for Seth, so natural, was like a bursting floodgate. There was so much anger there, fear, hurt, that the sandy wolf reeled beneath it. Jake was trying to control it, but the wolves that had always been the steadfast for the Alpha were exploding, and it took Seth a moment to realize that it was Sam and Leah that was driving this.

Someone had died. One of theirs had died. Shane Qahla had died and Casey with him, and a Cold One had killed them.

Shane? Casey? Oh hell, _Jared_. The leech killed Jared's big brother.

Seth felt the weight of that across his shoulders, and because the three wolves travelling through Canada were phased, Seth felt Jared lose it. Paul had experience with handling the Packmind, tried to block Jared's mindless grief-filled rage from the Pack and one wolf in specific, but it hit them all too hard. When Jared's grief slammed into them, Brady flipped, the pup unable to cope with Jared's pain. Sam and Leah were lost in the need to kill, to kill the one they were so desperately hunting, they could smell it so where the hell _was_ it, and Brady was right there with them, Jared's grief so deep that Brady was going to tear it apart. Brady was going to tear apart the world to take out the thing that had hurt Jared, _no one_ hurt Jared...

Collin phased in with more focus, but then he caught wind of the leech, and like the last time Neel had come across their land, Collin came apart. Not just that a vampire had killed, but that _that_ vampire had killed, and then Collin was running as hard as he could, almost intelligible in his need to bring it to ground. Embry was lost from the beginning, the moment his mind met with the swirling chaos that was his Pack's visceral rage, his wolf took over completely. Once that had been enough to completely throw them all into confusion, Embry and his own desire to kill this vampire only strengthen the already building momentum of the Pack.

Seth had never known anything like this, and so lost was he in the Packmind, trying to strengthen Jake that he only barely heard Jack whisper that Jake wouldn't be able to stop this. It was too late. Seth didn't know what was too late, because Jake had just managed where the Third had failed, as he shoved Jared and Quil to Paul, blocking them all away.

By then Leah had the fucker's trail, it was headed towards the east, and somehow it had gotten past them when they had gone off patrol when Sam had found…found…

Seth reeled beneath that image, that terrible image, and Sam was going to rip every damn piece of this asshole off one strip at a time for killing their people, for doing what they had done…

Seth angled, running as hard as he could at the place where he knew his Pack were all converging, but then he cursed, feeling his own temper fly apart when he saw in clearer detail Leah's head what the vampire had done to Casey and Shane, exactly how it had positioned them, exactly how Casey had died. There was no saving either Casey or Shane from that, and it had been on their watch, on Seth's territory. Seth had been taking a nap, Seth could have been out patrolling more but Seth had been taking a fucking _nap_, and now there was no getting them back. Seth knew this, that when people were dead that there was no getting them back.

Chancy took walks on the beach all the time.

Seth had never wanted to kill anything so badly in his life as he did at that moment, not the newborns, not the culled Pack, not Calgary. He was going to—The leech had doubled back over its own trail, almost as if it was circling the rez, and Seth thought that if it was going to be that stupid, than it was deserving of the fact that Seth was going to kill it, right now. It was right here, and before it could hurt anyone else, Seth was going to take it _down_.

The Beta knew that Jake was roaring at him to stop, but Seth could see the flicker of movement through the trees, could smell Collin close by, and there was no way that Seth was letting this bastard get out of here alive. Snarling terribly, Seth stretched out, running as hard as he could remember running, and he was gaining on it, gaining fast. He was so much faster than this piece of shit, and he was going to rip its head off last so that it would have to watch—

Dark haired and muscular, the vampire was only a few meters in front of him, just a little more and Seth would have it…

_**SETH, STOP!**_ Jake bellowed through the Packmind just as his wolf bred instinct for survival pushed higher than his need for revenge. Seth tried to slow, but he was too late. The vampire turned, planting a heel in the dirt, and he smiled.

They always talked about your life flashing by in slow motion right before you die, but it wasn't Seth's memories that he saw, but his Packmates'. He saw himself snuffling and bravely trying not to cry as he sat on the kitchen counter, his teenage sister cleaning his scraped knee as the blood poured from it so fast that Leah had wanted to cry herself. He saw his own leg as Jake lay under a rock in Mexico, Jake glad that if he was going to die, that Seth was still with him to the end. He saw Sam's despair that this young kid, too young, was standing tired and a little defiant in front of the old Alpha, the little kid that had always looked up to Sam until Sam had ripped out Leah's heart. Seth saw Embry watching the Beta stand at Jake's side, grinning and joking, the older wolf wishing that one day Embry would be as much of a brother to Jake as Seth had always seemed to be. He saw himself through Jack's eyes, in wolf form and running and looking so much like someone else that Jack had always been deeply frightened of disappointing him.

He saw Brady about to lose one of the few people in his life that gave a damn, and through Collin's eyes, the other wolf at the Beta's heels, Seth watched it happen.

As Leah screamed his name in his head, and Jake went so silent, almost numb because Jake wasn't there to stop this. And then Seth twisted, trying to get out of the way of the vampire that had stopped directly in front of him. He tried, but he had been stupid, careless, had thought that this one leech he could take down, when it was one leech too many. Its heel had braced in the ground as it spun and with inhuman strength, Neel punched Seth directly in the chest.

Too much momentum, its hand was too hard. Seth watched calmly as the vampire buried its arm up to the elbow in Seth's chest.

It hurt but Seth knew that there was another wolf at his heels, one less skilled at fighting than he was. When the hand in his chest kept ripping down his canine body as Seth's momentum took him over the braced vampire, Seth still tried to reach it with his jaws. It was almost painfully disappointing that his teeth snapped down on empty air, but then Seth didn't have to worry about it anymore, didn't have to worry about anything anymore. He'd been a good wolf, and a good Beta, and right now he was sorry he hadn't listened to Jake a little more, but it didn't matter. Seth's fight was done. Phantom fingers running through his coat, and as Seth slid into the darkness, for once he didn't shake them away.

He should have told his mother and his sister that he loved them. They probably knew.

* * *

Jack had known this was coming when he felt Sam and Leah simultaneously break. If he had been the wolf he had once been, Jack could have done something to try to stop it, but he wasn't that wolf anymore. The only thing he could do was to hold his place on the border, knowing that the others would drive the Cold One to him, as long as he positioned himself appropriately to meet the enemy being driven, and to warn his Alpha that Jake was about to lose control of his Pack.

And that's exactly what happened.

In the history of the Tlokwali, at least until T'sikáti, there had never been an Alpha strong enough to rein in the wolves when one of their people had been killed by a Cold One. Most Alphas had never tried, but those who had tried had failed. An Alpha's strength came from the wolves at their command, and from their own inner strength to hold those wolves. But the purpose of the Tlokwali had been to protect the land, and the people, from the Cold Ones. It was like a built in trigger, that when one of their own was killed, they went to hunt and couldn't contain themselves. That two had been killed made it worse, and it was the spirit of the wolf inside that forced the hunt. The Alphas, the greatest Alphas, could sometimes have the balance between man and wolf to restrain themselves from that ultimate hunt, from losing themselves to the rage, but the others would not.

Jack had seen this before, and it triggered such terrible memories that it was all that the man could do to hold his position and be what his Alpha needed from him, one wolf out of many that hadn't lost his mind. To be honest, the wolf spirit inside Jack was so close to death itself that it didn't have the strength to push its need for the hunt onto him. But it was angry, softly angry deep in his heart that they were so weak now, that the only thing they could do to help their Alpha, their Pack, was to do _nothing_.

They should never have become this weak, not for the reasons that they had.

Jake was running, trying to get control of his Pack despite what Jack had warned him, because they were his Pack and he needed them controlled. And he almost had them too, much to the ancient wolf's shock and admiration, but then the Beta smelled the Cold One as it doubled back into the reservation.

That was wrong, something was very very wrong, Alpha, because the Cold Ones _never_ doubled back into the land. It was asking for death…unless…

Jack had been right to hold his position on the barrier, but it was more right to try to stop this from happening a second time. The Beta needed to stop, Seth was being lured into a trap, but like the rest of their Pack, Seth was only thinking of the ones that had been killed, of their brother's wrenching grief, and the grief of loss that was all of theirs to share. Jack was running, and he was very fast, but he was much too far away to save his Beta. They were all too far away, even though the pup behind the Beta had tried so damn hard to get there in time, as had the rest of them.

The Alpha was the one who held the Pack, who protected them and loved them and kept them whole. But it was the Beta that had the Pack's heart, who had their love without the extra rush of fear that came with lying at the feet of an Alpha. Short of killing a she-wolf, there was nothing that could wound them more. Even Jack, who was so broken a wolf, felt his stomach twist and drop away as he saw through both the Beta and the pup's eyes as Seth was taken down. A wolf phased back into human form when close to death, and by the time the Beta had fallen limp to the ground, he was once again a man.

The whole Pack, Jake and Jack excluded, lost it.

Jake lost his hold on the three separated wolves, and Jared's grief flooded back through the Packmind, combined with Quil's sick disbelief, only to be blown away by Paul's fury when they watched Seth fall. Paul's fury turned to fear, because it was Collin who was at Seth's heels, it was Collin who faced this Cold One alone, and Paul suddenly was screaming for Collin to fall back, wait for the others, but all Collin saw was the Cold One with something in its hands and the body of the Beta on the ground.

If Jack had thought Paul's fury had been bad, it was nothing compared to Collin's. Jack stumbled midstride, stubbing his muzzle into the ground as the pup's wolf took over, and when Jake roared at Collin an _**order**_ to stop, the pup nearly ripped himself out of the Pack in his refusal of the order. Collin flung himself at the Cold One, who grinned and waved, as if knowing they could all see him, and then the Cold One darted away.

The Alpha was roaring at Jack now, because Jack was closest to Collin and no one was coherent enough to stop and try to help Seth. No one was listening to him but Paul and Jack, and Paul was too far away. Jake had to help Seth, Jack needed to get to Collin, to head them off before this asshole got off their land and for fuck's sake, don't let the leech kill Collin too.

Jack tried. He tried with every bit of strength that he had, but the best that he could do was run parallel sixty meters out from the pup and the one that had killed their people. The best he could do was watch as the Cold One flung itself over the border, shifting back east towards Forks. He had the whole Pack on his heels now, although the distance between them and Collin was further than between Jack and Collin. The pup was in a frenzy, bloody foam on his jaws as he gnawed his own tongue in frustration. Collin was so close, as close as the Beta had been, and it would have been so easy for the Cold One to spin on Collin the way it had with Seth, but it seemed like the Cold One was purposely keeping itself just outside of the reach of Collin's jaws.

_Collin would kill it, they would kill it, they would kill it for hurting what was theirs_…

And then the very worst thing that could have happened, happened. The Cold One swung hard towards the coven, bringing an entire Pack of frenzied wolves with him. Even though the coven hated this Cold One, and wanted it dead beyond any others, it still headed directly for the coven and Jack's imprint.

Jack's Pack had been whipped into a frenzy, and they were going to kill any Cold One they came across. Jack's imprint was half Cold One. Imprint or not, Jack didn't think that it would be enough that she didn't smell like the Cold Ones did. Renesmee was just a child, as incapable of protecting herself against a Pack of wolves as any other single inexperienced Cold One, and his insides went cold. Jack had been allowed to care for so few for so long now, but she was his imprint and he cared about her. He had cared about his Beta too, as he did every single one of his Pack, but he cared for his imprint more. This Cold One had taken down their Beta, had killed their own, and he was going to have to have to protect it to protect her.

The sheer _unfairness_ of that broke what was left of his heart as for the second time in his very long life, Jack turned on his Pack.

Jack didn't know who was at the coven, all he could do was pray to the spirits and the ancestors to let Renesmee not be there as he angled towards the pup and the Cold One, snarling terribly at his own Packmate as the smell of the Cullen coven filled his nostrils. She was there, with only one other with her. It was the seer, the tiny Cold One that had offended him so much. He could see her standing in front of the coven, horror in her eyes as she saw what was happening. There were Cold Ones around, converging on them, but from the town of Forks and not nearly close enough to stop the rush of wolves upon the coven.

Jack heard the seer cry out to his imprint to stay inside, and she was a well behaved child. She always did as she was told, she always did as she was told, except apparently for today. Because even as the pixie-like Cold One came running the Pack's way, eyes determined as Alice aimed for the one they were chasing…brave, Cold One and kin of his imprint, very brave if very stupid…even as Alice did, Jack heard Renesmee cry out to her kin in warning and come running out of the house. Renesmee must have felt his fear, but too late.

Late, it was too late. They were too close.

It was the Alpha that saved her, because he had felt Jack's fear, and even for an Alpha who had adored his Beta, an imprint came first. Jake had abandoned his wolf to try to save their newest imprint, and as he ran after them, somewhere Jake found it within himself to give an order that the Pack simply could not refuse. The Alpha hit them with everything he had to _**STOP**_, to pull _**BACK**_ from the hunt, to _**COME BACK**_ to him. And it saved the life of the pixie because it was only when she was too close did she realize that the wolves were out of control. Sam nearly took out a tree when Jake's command jerked him off his paws, Brady barreling into him afterwards and going down in a mess of snapping teeth and scrambling claws. Leah hesitated, seemed to realize what was happening, and then shoved herself sideways into Embry, the black-eyed wolf snarling at her as she forced him away right as they hit the coven grounds. Alice had turned and was sprinting back to Renesmee, had just managed to scoop the child up into her arms when the Cold One they were chasing turned and lunged straight for the pair, Collin at his heels.

Jack could hear it in Collin's mind, the fact that his wolf was straining with every last bit it had to fight off Jake's order because he was close, so very close…

Too close to Renesmee.

The Cold One was going to take Collin directly into Jack's imprint, there were wolves tumbling everywhere, and for Alice there was no place to go. Jack heard Alice scream his name once as she shoved Renesmee beneath her and braced herself to take the hit. The Cold One was going for his imprint, his Packmate was going to run straight over his imprint, and Jack had no choice. When Collin lunged for the kill, Jack lunged for the only one he could reach. Collin. Jack's teeth buried into the side of Collin's neck, and his body crashing into Collin's right before the pup hit the females on the ground. As Jack's and Collin's tumbling bodies smashed through the side of the coven's home and into their living room, Jack desperately trying to get his jaws off Collin's throat before another accident happened, the Cold One that had killed their own made a grab for Alice and Renesmee. To her credit, Jack's little imprint bit the Cold One as it reached for Alice's throat, and then Leah was on him, her jaws getting a chunk of the Cold One's side, making him hiss and clutch the thing it was carrying tighter, snarling as Leah lunged for him again.

The rest of the coven was suddenly there, converging on the madness at the same time that Jake arrived, and the Cold One darted for the north, Leah at his heels. Cold Ones were everywhere, and Jack prayed to the spirits and the ancestors again that one of them protect his imprint, as Collin's wolf felt the Alpha's order finally stick and the pup turned his unprecedented rage Jack's way.

To Collin's wolf, Jack had turned on them, had cost them their kill. To be honest, Jack felt exactly the same way.

Jack prayed that his imprint wasn't watching, hoped that it didn't upset her too badly that they had broken her little chair that she liked so much, and then Jack accepted what he had done. He had protected his imprint, yes, but at the cost of possibly losing the one that had killed two of their people, one a blood brother of their Packmate. He had stopped them from catching the one who had taken down their Beta. The Beta wasn't dead yet but he was almost there, and if Jack hadn't turned on his own Packmate, that death wouldn't be for nothing.

In his shame, Jack flattened down and took the second beating of his lifetime, beneath the teeth and claws of a pup that was too far gone in his frenzy to know better. Jack could have fought back, but he never once even tried, he just hunkered down and tried not to whine too much as Collin tore him apart. It was the Alpha and Renesmee's father that finally managed to pull Collin off of him. Wounded and bleeding badly, a dangerous thing to be when one was surrounded by those they didn't trust, and others who no longer could trust oneself, Jack tried to crawl away. He got about as far as his imprint's mother's car, one that was now crushed from Embry slamming into it, and then his front left leg gave out. His back hurt, not as badly as the last time so long ago, but badly enough that it would take days to heal fully. It was hard to see out of one eye, and his muzzle felt stiff, like it was swollen. Collin's sharp jaws had completely shredded his ear.

"Daddy! Daddy, is he okay?"

"You need to stay back, Renesmee, he's hurt. Jack? It's me, Edward. You need to phase human so we can help you."

If Jack hadn't been so miserable, so convinced that his life was one of circles, a repetition of events that could never been changed, then he might gave laughed. As it was he whined and saw the bronze haired little girl plugging her nose with one hand, standing behind her father and staring at him with big fat tears in her wide eyes. Of course. The blood. This would be hard for her. He needed to leave, to get away from her. Thinking in English was hard, but he was pretty sure that as he began to crawl away, his imprint's father had understood. When she cried out his name and tried to follow, Edward picked her up and kept Renesmee away.

Jack wouldn't die from his wounds, but he was hurt and his part in the hunt was over. Jake had already sent the rest of the Pack back to the reservation at a run to get to Seth, and Leah was finally abandoning the hunt and trying to force Carlisle to do the same. Alice and Emmett and Rose and Jasper were still in pursuit, with Esme hot on their heels, but Carlisle was needed back here. Seth was…Seth was almost…

The ancient wolf had wanted a chance to say goodbye, but he probably wouldn't be healed enough to get there in time, and the Alpha had just finished driving Collin off from the Pack. The Alpha had seen Collin turn on his own Packmate, and Jake didn't have time to deal with that right now. If Collin couldn't be trusted then Collin wasn't to come back to the reservation until Jake told him to. The horror of being cast out of the Pack, even if temporarily, crushed Collin, and he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do.

He was sorry, he was so very sorry…Collin didn't know what had happened, but he didn't mean to, he had hurt Jack, but he hadn't _meant_ to…_he was so sorry_…

A whine from the pup in the nearby bushes, so pitiful and broken, that Jack couldn't help it. He wagged his tail and thought that hurt or not, he'd rather be with a Packmate than alone. And when the pup scooted in closer, Jack made sure to lick Collin's throat, even if it hurt to do so. Jack was certain that everything would be okay. That's why they had an Alpha, so that everything would be okay. Trembling with fear, because deep within Collin was a wolf spirit so vicious that it wasn't done with this hunt, not yet, not done at all, the pup stayed at Jack's side until the Third came to fetch him back to the reservation.

Jack had crawled a little more and had hidden deeper into the woods by now, hoping that the Third wouldn't see him, glad that the Alpha had forgotten about him. Lost in his head and his hurt, because he had turned on his Pack again and was so very ashamed, Jack didn't understand how deeply it wounded his Pack that he was so scared of them. He didn't understand that it hurt them, that all he could think was to hunker down and stay small, and that this all might go away. If he could hide from them long enough, it would all go away.

They left him be. For the moment it was better that way.

* * *

Samantha had been sleeping when the warning howl came. She had stayed up the entire time Embry had been patrolling that night, so that when he came home, they could curl up and pass out together. It was so rare that they had any significant amount of time together to sleep that it had been like an extra Christmas gift for them, even nicer than the oversized Stanford sweatshirt Embry had bought her for Christmas or the next season of Seinfeld that she had saved up to buy for him.

Comfortable and relaxed in his arms, Samantha had even slept through the frustration felt by the Alpha as he talked to Paul, the Third once again stopped by another Pack's Alpha when Paul was doing his best to keep clear. But there was no sleeping through what happened next, the utter chaos that was Embry flinging himself out of bed and roaring at her to get her weapon and hide in the closet, to _stay there _until he came and got her.

Unlike the girl across the reservation, Samantha knew exactly what that meant, and she was already running to do as Embry said as her boyfriend hit the door and phased. He must have only taken two strides from the house, before Embry's snarl of rage turned into his own howl, the glass windows shaking as Samantha dropped to the floor and scooted back into the closet, clamping her hands over her ears to protect herself from the sound.

She had heard a hunt before, had heard the wolf voices rise from different parts of the reservation, but she had never heard anything like this. They were being too loud, not even trying to hide the fact that the Pack was sweeping through the land on a hunt, and then Jake blasted right through the buffer that adrenaline and fear had built up between Samantha and himself.

Jake needed his Pack to come to him. _Now. __**NOW**_!

Samantha's fingernails dug into the doorframe of the closet as she fought it. He couldn't mean her, Jake _wouldn't_ mean her. She was just an imprint, he couldn't possibly mean her. But when Jake pulled on his Pack again, this time harder than ever before, he pulled on _all_ of them. Samantha was Jake's imprint, but she was also something…more. She didn't know how exactly to explain it, all she knew was that when Jake pulled, she had no choice and suddenly she was running, running as hard as she could towards that pull.

She had to. The compulsion was too strong when Jake needed them this much. She had to go.

Samantha knew it was stupid, she had tears in her eyes she knew it was so stupid, but as she ran she simply couldn't stop herself. The trees flashed by as she plunged headfirst through the forest, not even knowing where her feet were taking her, but knowing there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. There was a vampire out here, there may be wolves that weren't her Pack out here, and the only thing that she had to protect herself was the vampire tooth hidden in her ear piercing and the wolf fang clutched in her white knuckled hand. It wasn't enough, it wouldn't be enough, and out here was the absolute last place she should be. She was so scared that she couldn't think straight, but she had no way to stop herself.

The Alpha had called her, and she was Pack. _She had to go_.

A scent burned her nostrils, sickly sweet and stomach turning, a scent that made her shudder even as she tripped over a fallen branch, ending up hands and face in the snow. But the pain in her knee, the stinging on her palms as she scraped them in catching herself, none of it was enough to stop her from staggering to her feet. Jake was still pulling, trying to bring them all to him, and Samantha felt what little that was left of the barrier between them burn up like paper before the Alpha's rage. Something was desperately, horribly wrong, something that would be worse if Jake couldn't get his Pack back to him, but it wasn't working.

Samantha could feel Jake's fear, his fear of failing his Pack, and his determination to not let it happen.

When Jake reached deeper inside himself, into that place that place of Alpha strength that scared her so much, Samantha's panic made her throw everything she had into the imprint bond. He was looking for more power, but Samantha wasn't ready for the super volcano beneath them all to blow yet, so she took every bit of self-control and inner strength that she had ever felt and she shoved who and what she was into Jake.

There was a pause, and then for the first time in their imprinting together, Jake used his imprint. Like an anchor twisted into soft dirt, Samantha felt herself loosen when Jake grabbed onto her for balance, and then the Alpha slammed the Pack with an order so powerful that there wasn't a wolf in a three thousand mile radius that didn't feel it, even if they had Alphas to buffer them from his strength.

Samantha didn't have that luxury. She was tied directly to that strength, and for a moment Samantha was lost. She was screaming because Jake was screaming, screaming for them to come back _now_. Blood, death, fury, the kill was in front of them and with it a mindless need to destroy what had taken down their own. Pain, pain because one of their own hurt so much…

Suddenly Samantha knew exactly why. With a sob of horror, Samantha tried to find something, anything left inside herself to take from to run faster. Faster, faster, she had to be faster. Jake was still pulling her but she couldn't go to him. She needed to get to someone else. It was almost too easy, that shift in direction as the Alpha understood her need and pulled her a different way. Samantha didn't understand it, but she didn't try to fight it. And then she was there, the smell of blood and pain so thick in the air that she nearly gagged on it.

A young man lay crumpled on the ground, naked and completely covered in blood. _So_ _much_ _blood_.

Samantha staggered to a stop, grabbing onto a tree for balance as she hid her face against the rough bark. She didn't want to see this, didn't want to get closer. To be honest, Samantha was scared. She was so scared because she knew by the size of the body and the nudity that this had to be one of her Pack, and she didn't know what one. With the exception of Jake, she didn't know…but whoever it was looked like they were going to be dead. They had phased back to human, the way Embry had told her dead wolves did.

But what if he wasn't? What if it was Embry and he wasn't dead yet?

In Samantha's life, she had faced some very terrible things, and she would eventually have to face more. But this one…this one would be one of the absolute worst. She wasn't sure what started her moving again, maybe it was the fact that as scared as she was of seeing death, she was more scared of standing by and letting it happen. As she wadded through crimson stained snow, the spreading puddle had her gagging again, because a wolf was large and before he had phased back to human form, he had bled a lot of blood. Samantha was pretty sure that most of the blood had been inside her Packmate was now slushing beneath her bare feet.

Seth. Oh god, it was _Seth_.

Seth lay stretched out on his side, his head bent in an awkward angle that hid most of his face in the ground, but this close, Samantha knew who it was. The earth was torn badly, as if there had been a fight here, but it was clear who the loser had been. He had been…ripped. That was the best way that Samantha could describe it, Seth looked like something had punched into him near his heart and had just kept tearing down. Too many important places, too many vital organs, too much damage…there was no way he was still alive. He couldn't be. His sides weren't moving, and there were no puffs of condensation coming from his nostrils where heated wolf breath mixed with cold winter air.

As the Alpha's imprint settled down next to Seth's head, taking it into her hands and trying to untwist it so that he could lie easy, she began to cry. She remembered seeing the dead man in the cave, but the last person that she had _loved_ that she had seen dead was her mother.

It was Christmas. Seth couldn't die on Christmas.

They had told her that when the vampire had thrown her, that it was Seth who had breathed for her when she had been unable to breath for herself. But she had never been as bad as this.

"Seth?" Samantha whispered, pulling her brand new sweatshirt off and ignoring the fact that she was almost nude underneath. She had been sleeping with Embry, and his body heat meant that she would grow uncomfortable if she slept clothed, but she had loved this sweatshirt the moment she had unwrapped it, and she hadn't been able to resist wearing it to bed.

"Seth?" Samantha repeated in a shaky voice. "I'm going to…I'm going to try and stop the bleeding as much as I can, okay? So if I throw up on you, you can't give me shit about it. You look like hell."

The fabric didn't want to tear between her shaking fingers as she pulled at it, but when she cut it with Jake's wolf fang, it gave like it was nothing more than delicate cobwebs. What could do something like this to someone like Seth? Someone who had many of these fangs, and the speed and power and intelligence to match? She didn't know, but she couldn't handle seeing that…tear in him anymore. She shouldn't be able to see inside Seth, Seth who had a playful smile and an easy laugh, and whose eyes had watched her from the beginning, taking care of her, protecting her. He had hurt her, yes, to try and protect Embry, but she had done the same to herself for the same reason.

"Seth? Do you…" Oh god, she was so _scared_ to try to move him, but he was covered in blood, and even wolves couldn't heal some wounds. She wadded the hood of the sweatshirt into a ball and tried to press it into the hole in his chest, where he was still bleeding out the worst. "Do you remember that you once told me…That you once told me that if I was traumatized from someone scaring me that I was hanging out with the wrong crowd?"

Seth didn't answer, didn't even move as she used all of her strength to try and get the strips of cloth beneath him to tie around him. Close him up, she didn't know what else to do, and the wolves would have to be getting medical attention for him, right? Close him up, pretend she wasn't pressing inside things back inside, and then try to breathe for him.

"Well, Clearwater, I think you were right. I was hanging out with the wrong crowd," Samantha said in a broken voice, her whole arms now shaking, from the cold and from the blood that now covered her too, and from Jake burning like an inferno in every inch of her soul. "Because you're scaring me, Seth, and Jake's scaring me, and the fact that whatever is out there could be doing this to one of the rest of the Pack is scaring me...I don't want to be scared anymore, Seth. _Seth_? Please wake up and talk to me...Please, Seth, I…_please_…"

Closed up wasn't any better, and he should never be this pale, never ever. He still wasn't breathing, and Samantha was crying harder now, but she still plugged his nose and tipped his head back, pressing her lips to his. A puff of breath, another. Another.

"Seth, please, we love you, please don't do this to us…"

Another breath. It wasn't working. It wasn't working, and where the hell was the Pack with Carlisle? Where was Leah? Where were any of them?

"Seth!" His lips were turning blue, because he was slipping away. "Jacob Black, _where the fuck are you_?" Samantha suddenly screamed, because she didn't know what else to do, who else to turn to. But she was alone, and she had no idea where she was to even try to run for help, and closing him up was almost worse. Like…like a…it had gutted him open like a….

She was still trying to breathe for Seth when the Pack arrived, a mass of plunging wolf bodies converging on her all at once. Embry panicking at seeing her covered in blood, driving her off to the side to keep her away from everyone else. And then it was the right girl holding Seth's head and trying to breathe for him, the stronger girl, the one who had brought the vampire doctor with her and who was cursing at Seth and telling him exactly why he wasn't allowed to die, not yet.

Jake gave her a tortured look, his handsome face twisted in pain, and then he began Alpha ordering his Beta not to die. Using his own strength, using his pack, and, when Carlisle cursed and told Jake that Seth was almost gone, Jake used what little was left of hers. An anchor in softened dirt that was giving way, and as the earth tilted and Samantha staggered, something inside of her dug in to brace for Jake, even as he shredded her in using her like this a second time. It was obvious that Jake would kill them all to save just one of them. That he would kill all of them to save any one of them. This was Pack, but this wasn't Samantha's world and she shouldn't be here. After all, none of the other imprints were here. Samantha wasn't ready for this…she hadn't been ready for any of it.

The grey wolf with the black spots on its back pushed at her legs, driving her further away, back behind a tree where she didn't have to see it anymore. Sinking down to the ground, she was shaking, shaking so hard that the strong arms around her could barely hold her still.

It had peeled Seth open like a tin can. How the hell do you fight something like that?

_By being stronger_, something whispered into her mind. And then Jake took too much, and all she saw was black.

* * *

Renesmee had known that the vampire Neel was a bad man, and that that he had hurt good people. But until she saw the expression of sheer pleasure on the older vampire's face as he deliberately brought the Pack, the Cullen's most dangerous allies, down on them in a frenzied, uncontrolled mass, Renesmee had always thought that there were no bad people, just misguided and sometimes mentally disturbed ones.

No one wanted to be a monster, they just sometimes had a hard time not being one, at least that had always been Renesmee's theory. It was a theory she was being forced to rethink now.

Her grandfather had been furious at the attack on her and Alice, her family had told her so, and Carlisle had been halfway to Canada in pursuit of Neel before Leah had finally convinced him to turn back to help Seth. It was nighttime now, and Carlisle was still in the woods of La Push, a dangerous place to be as it was swarming with cops investigating the murders that had taken place. But Seth was too hurt to be moved, was still barely with them and her father had sadly had to warn her that it was quite possible that Renesmee's friend could die. That Seth was a fighter, and to pray for him, because if anyone could fight through, it was Seth. But it could still happen.

Renesmee wished that Jake had never taught her how to play pretend. It made it so much harder to logically prepare herself for the worst, like she was trying.

As soon as Leah had turned back with Carlisle, Renesmee's aunt had been able to finally see Neel, but a few hundred miles into Canada, he disappeared. It was the same way that he disappeared when in close proximity to the La Push Pack, and her family knew better than to follow into the Calgary Pack's territory. There was nothing more they could do but be angry that a single vampire had managed to wreak so much havoc.

But then again, that's what this particular vampire was good at. And even after all this time, the Volturi hadn't managed to kill Neel yet, either. The Cullens had only been trying for a few years.

Renesmee waited until nightfall, trying to be brave and to not ask questions, and to help her family clean up their home as best as they could. The wolves had made a mess of things, but her family wasn't angry at that. They were angry at themselves. Renesmee's parents had been headed to pick up her grandpa Charlie and her grandparent Cullen had been at the Forks Hospital staff Christmas party when the attack had come, and her Aunt Rose, Uncle Jasper, and Uncle Emmett had just gone for a hunt. Aunt Alice hadn't seen anything wrong, and no one had thought twice of leaving Renesmee and Alice for an hour to hunt or go to town.

From what she had learned from her father, the entire incident from First Beach in La Push to their coven had taken only four and half minutes. Apparently it didn't take very long for people to die.

The little girl tried to be good, tried to be patient, and when her father had finally deemed enough time had passed to respect the wishes of someone else, Edward took Renesmee by the hand and led her out into the woods. They had brought a bundle of things, mostly medical supplies, some spare clothes, and a small telescope. It took a while, but they were good hunters and their prey was injured, and Renesmee probably could have tracked her wolf by scent alone if she had to.

He was miserable, having found another bush to hide under, although Renesmee didn't understand why. Her wolf had protected her and her aunt, and the other wolf, Collin had attacked _Jack _for it. Renesmee was much too polite to say so, but she was very unhappy with Collin right now, and had less problem then she normally would have at the fact that Paul had shown up, talked briefly to Edward about what Collin had done to Jack, and then had taken the younger wolf to task in the most brutal of ways.

Her father had assured her that Paul loved Collin too much to hurt him too badly, but Renesmee pretended not to care either way. What she did care about was her wolf, and the fact that it took a bit of coaxing but she was able to get him out from under the foliage and into the open, his torn and hurting body accessible to Renesmee's father and his massive head next to her knees. And as her father calmly went about cleaning and dressing Jack's healing wounds, Renesmee rubbed his good ear gently and told him that she was proud of him. That he was the bravest wolf that she had ever known, and that she wouldn't have wanted any other wolf to imprint on her but him. And then, because she was a little girl, and that made it hard to see an adult in pain, even as a wolf, she tried to make him feel better by showing him his star.

It was that star, right there. That was the one she had picked out for him. Did he like it?

It hurt to do it, but she wanted him to see. So the old broken down wolf looked up at the night sky, ignoring the scent of Cold One in his nostrils as he whined softly in pain, and he found the star of which she spoke.

"Mister Jack? Do you like it? Do you like your star?"

He did. Jack always had.


	13. Chapter 11

**A/N** I'm sorry it took so long, I'll do my best to keep up the pace with the next one. This was a very busy writing month for me, as some of you know. As always a huge thanks to my reviewers: _Aleena Kiwiana, EssaTheTwerp, SARAH DB, Maximus05, moani-sama, BlackAmulet, megawords19, Ninadoll, Elvira Iula, iluvjasp, QahlanKwaiya, lilred-07, Manna1, dirtychicken, cylobaby, WorldsAngel, beth (dot) hope, hilja, TheNotoriousLIP, fallunder, MadToTheBone1, Buffyk0604, KerryH, Ms. Persephone, 82c10akaLynn, Cotton Strings, The all mighty and powerfulM, laurazuleta18, shelbron, MargotTenser, scrapalicious, Roonani, chicadee74, Britt01, arctic-howl, MusicJunkie4, hefors, dancelikeyoujustdontcare, _and_ Shiki Shana_. And HUGE thanks to LIP for being such a good beta and friend these last three weeks. *hugs*

_*Yapótalli_- "I'm tired", _Hìtkwotalítali_- "Sad/heartsick", _Hítkwollo_ _xaxíktiya_- "I'm sick today"

Disclaimer: The legend of Thunderbird is Quileute legend, and all literary licenses are taken with the utmost respect intended to the Quileute Nation. Any offensive material will be taken down immediately.

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Eleven

_It is said that in the days leading up to the betrayal of Qa'al, that the great Alpha T'sikáti grew restless and irritable, so much so that except for Qa'al himself, the Tlokwali stayed away. _

_The Alpha had taken to pacing the land as both man and wolf, always searching, although for what T'sikáti never spoke of. Instead he grew quieter, more reticent, as the days grew cooler with the changing of the seasons. Often the Alpha could be found standing alone along the shore, staring at A-Ka-Lat, the resting place of the Alphas and Chieftains and the most precious of their people. T'sikáti would swim to the island in the middle of the night in human form, only to emerge as wolf, the water darkening his coat until he blended in with the wet sand and disappeared among the tree line. _

_It is said that in those days, T'sikáti was preoccupied by death, when there should have been only happiness and life. _

_Qa'al tried to coax his friend back into the joys of the living, but Qa'al was much distracted by his lover and their unborn child, and was equally distracted by the blood brother of Tuktukadi, the pup Tupkuk that Qa'al had taken under his wing. Their Qa'al was the happiest that they had seen him, so much so that his quiet smiles were given over to wider, more joyous ones, and his laughter could often be heard echoing across the village. Serious and intense, the half-Makah youth trailed constantly at Qa'al's heels, smiling only because he knew how much it pleased Qa'al for him to break that seriousness. It is said that the deep respect that Qa'al had always shown T'sikáti was reflected in Tupkuk's eyes every time he was guided by Qa'al, and Tupkuk made to fashion himself after Qa'al in all manner of things._

_In the last warm day before the coolness of fall turned to the bitter chill of winter, Tuktukadi went down to the ocean to bathe. As he always did, Qa'al went with her, his hands steady on her waist as they splashed about, for there were strong currents in the waters and he had no desire to see his loved ones be swept away. Qa'al instructed his unborn child in how to swim, his woman laughing as the fishhook puffed out his cheeks and pressed kisses to her belly, and she laughed again when he found other, more sensitive parts to kiss. _

_When the drums from the Tlokwali house accompanied a silent request by T'sikáti, Qa'al drew his family back onto the shore, his woman making faces at his protectiveness as he insisted she come out of the water while he was gone. It is said that Tuktukadi argued with him until Qa'al grew frustrated, and eventually he acceded to her desire to be left to her bathing. Promising to go no deeper than her knees, knees that Qa'al enjoyed tickling every chance he was able, Tuktukadi sent Qa'al on his way. _

_The Beta had instructions for them in preparation for this winter, insisting that too many had grown too hungry over the last few winters, and by the time the discussion was done, the sun had already slipped from the sky. Qa'al and T'sikáti returned home to their longhouse only to find it empty, the fires never lit and their dinners unprepared. When questioned, no one had seen Tuktukadi return from the water, but Qa'al's lover had a habit of wandering when she was in the mood for it, a habit that had never faded despite her ever growing love for him. Still, Qa'al could find no sign of her as he made his way down to the water, and when the wind blew no scent of her to his sensitive nostrils, his heart began to twist in fear. Once upon the shore, Qa'al pressed his fingers into the tracks that were his woman's footsteps into the water, and several of her footsteps back out again where she had re-clothed herself beside a boulder. And there her tracks simply disappeared._

_It was as if Qa'al's owl had taken to wing and had finally flown away. _

_Their Qa'al had always been a calm man, one prone to quietness and gentle teasing. However when faced with the loss of Tuktukadi and his child, Qa'al flew into a kind of mindless rage that the Tlokwali had never seen from him before. Convinced that she had been stolen away by an enemy tribe and unable to maintain human guise because of his fury, Qa'al's brindled wolf form tore apart the beaches, trying to find the smallest track or the slightest scent of Tuktukadi or anywhere an enemy canoe may have been pulled ashore. And when none was discovered, T'sikáti ordered the entirety of the wolves to search as well, fanning across the earth in hunt for her. _

_For days the Tlokwali hunted, far beyond their own lands, driven nearly frantic by the anger of their Qa'al. T'sikáti could barely contain Qa'al as the wolf pushed them mercilessly, running himself and the others to exhaustion, before forcing them up to run again. Village after village was searched as Qa'al strode uncaringly into the lands of their enemies; certain one of them had taken her as their own slave. Between T'sikáti and the Beta, they only just managed to keep Qa'al from killing anyone, not even a Makah that sneered and claimed to have killed Tuktukadi himself, although it was Tupkuk that finally wrung the truth of innocence from the man as Qa'al snarled and fought to be let free. _

_Finally, after nearly a moon had passed, T'sikáti ordered the search called off. _

_Heartsick for his friend, T'sikáti had grown worried that Qa'al would bring war parties in retribution to their people, but the Alpha swore to run until his paws bled in search of her. It is said that T'sikáti kept that promise, but that Qa'al grew irrationally upset that the Tlokwali had abandoned their hunt, and for the first time in five hundred years, when Qa'al ran, it was not at T'sikáti's side. In his anger and his grief, Qa'al ran alone._

_And yet no matter how far, no matter how diligently they searched, their hunt remained fruitless. Even T'sikáti and Qa'al, the two oldest and greatest of the Tlokwali could not find one woman, could not even guess how she had been taken from under their noses. And as the days passed and grew colder and harsher, Qa'al took to sleeping on the beach where his woman had disappeared, as if hoping for her to fly back home to him. The smiles and laughter from their Qa'al, that had once been the joy of the Tlokwali, were seen and heard no more._

_When the snow lay thick upon the ground and Qa'al's little owl had still not been found, Qa'al stood at the shore where she had had disappeared and prayed to the spirits for guidance. He didn't understand why they were quiet in his ears, why their softest whispers urged him to do nothing, when they had always been close to him and guided his paths. It seemed that even the ancestors had abandoned him, as if a daughter of the Makah people was not worth their wisdom, or their help._

_Squatting down in the sand, still unwilling to accept that his life had been stolen away from him, Qa'al's eyes swept the sea, the land, the sky. And off in the distance, the mountains rose, white capped and imposing. It was there the great Thunderbird lived, the massive creature whose talons had once delivered a whale to the people to feed starving Kwòlíyoť bellies. To venture too close to Thunderbird's home was to invite death, but in remembering the way that Tuktukadi's eyes had so worriedly swept towards that mountain the night that he had found her, Qa'al rose to his feet._

_Qa'al had already been willing to die an old man at her side. It was no matter if he died now, and Qa'al would anger Thunderbird himself if it meant finding Tuktukadi and bringing her home safe. _

_Loyal to the last, T'sikáti tried to follow, but Qa'al drove him away with snarls and snapping teeth. Angry and broken hearted as he was, Qa'al's love for T'sikáti was deep and he would not lead his friend to death, not if he could help it. And so T'sikáti climbed the mountain until the trees thinned and great rocks lay open beneath the sky, rocks that had been thrown by the beating of Thunderbird's wings. It was there that T'sikáti lay down and waited as Qa'al topped the summit, Qa'al's bare feet and skin melting the snow that touched them, his breath a heavy mist as he called out her name, over and over again until his throat was raw and pained. _

_Several times Qa'al disturbed Thunderbird's rest, and the irritable beating of Thunderbird's wings sent massive sheets of snow down the mountainside, often trapping Qa'al beneath its weight. Each time Qa'al would fight his way free and call out for Tuktukadi again. Her name was burned on his tongue, and it seemed as if it was the only word that he could any longer say. _

_And finally, it was on the furthest side of the mountain, where even the bravest of men had never strayed, that Qa'al smelled what had taken her away. _

_A Cold One was there. A Cold One, his enemy, and beneath that sickly sweet burning was the scent of something else, something so familiar to Qa'al that his broken heart twisted violently. With a wordless cry he sprung forward, phasing midair and letting out a terrible snarl of rage. A Cold One was there, hiding in the shelter of the rocks, and it bore with it the scent of his woman mixed with leather hides and the smoke of many nights spent by a fire in his arms. In fury, Qa'al darted up the mountainside and with a bellow, flung himself at the Cold One, the Cold One that had risen to its feet and stood in front of him, just waiting._

_Dark-haired and dark-eyed, the Cold One watched him come at her, before she finally stretched forth her hand and cried out his name. "Qa'al! Qa'al, it's me!" His fangs were almost at her throat when Qa'al realized who she was, and he nearly broke his own neck trying to twist himself away from her, to keep from hurting her. _

Tuktukadi_. It was _Tuktukadi_. _

_Qa'al hit the ground hard, rolling several times before stopping. The brindled wolf phased away, and as a man Qa'al rose to his feet, turning plain brown eyes her way. The Cold One in front of him was Tuktukadi, but this woman…this woman was not his. Her eyes, so beautiful in the firelight, now gleamed black. Her skin, brown and smooth beneath his lips and his fingertips, was now flawless, now glittered like the sun across the ocean waves. Her limbs, once strong and lean, were perfectly formed and harder than the stones she stood beside. And her scent, burning so badly in his nostrils, was not the woman he had lain with, the woman he had loved. _

_And because the woman that he had loved was carrying his a child, a child that was supposed to be born in one moon hence, Qa'al's eyes swept down to her stomach._

_There was nothing there. Where his child had rounded her stomach, only flatness remained. A Cold One had taken his life, had taken his family, and Qa'al was Tlokwali. Qa'al was supposed to have protected them. Oh, how desperately he had failed. _

_"Qa'al," the creature that was his Tuktukadi whispered brokenly, taking a step towards him and stretching out her hand in supplication. "Qa'al, _please_. It's still me. _Qa'al_**, **_it's still me_."_

_And then she was pressing her forehead to his chest, trembling as she pulled him into her arms, and everywhere she touched him burned with cold. Burned in a way that the winter snow around him could never do. "Qa'al, _please_…"_

_She was frightened, shaking, her hands gripping at him the same way they had every night she had pulled him from his spirit dreams. But gripping him too hard, hard enough that his skin gave beneath the sharpness of her fingernails, cutting him deeply. She was a Cold One, and he was bleeding. She would feed from him and he would die, poisoned beneath her fangs. He should have run, should have fought her, but instead Qa'al let out a keening cry of loss and sank to his knees. His arms wrapping around her waist, Qa'al pressed his forehead to her stomach and wept brokenly._

_His woman and his child were dead. As the creature that had once been Tuktukadi clung to him, her fingernails still slicing into his skin as she whispered his name, Qa'al was overwhelmed by the finality of this pain. He would never get them back. _His woman and his child were dead_. _

_Closing his eyes, Qa'al surrendered himself to acceptance of the same._

* * *

Somewhere between nightfall and midnight, rent flesh began to knit itself back together.

It was an intensely painful process, not made any easier by the fact the mending was much faster than was typical for a human or a beast. In fact the pain, usually spread out upon days or weeks, could be terrible when condensed into a span of mere hours. Advanced healing, like so many aspects of the wolves, was a doubled-edged blade.

As she sat on the ground, snow on the knees of her jeans, Renesmee Cullen watched muscle tie itself into muscle, growing to cover the bright whiteness of bone, binding itself into raw newness from the inside out. It occurred to her that the awfulness of the wounds stretching across her wolf's back and neck were spread wider at the surface than at their deepest point, and it was tempting to want to press those tears together even tighter than force the outside to heal first. To rid herself of seeing his pain, so easily etched across his surface, but her grandfather had taught her that wounds needed to heal properly where they were cut the deepest, and only then could the outside follow suit.

As much as one might like, slapping a bandage on top to cover what one wished the most not to see was rarely the way to heal. So Renesmee steeled her stomach, continued to stroke her wolf's uninjured ear, and she told him the stories that she liked the most in her softest voice as her father continually cleaned the worst of Jack's wounds as they mended. Carlisle had called Edward, warned him of the infections that were plaguing the Beta, warned him to be careful which of Jack's wounds to try and close and which to keep open for the ancient wolf's safety. The sooner Jack could travel the better, because Jacob needed his Pack around him for Seth. The Beta was in very bad shape.

That phone call had sent Jack trying to crawl to La Push, but Edward had chided him over it, reminded Jack that Edward's daughter was permanently tied to him. Was he willing to risk Renesmee's happiness and health by damaging himself more when a few hours of patience should be enough that he could travel more safely?

It was the only time her wolf had ever snapped his teeth at any of them, but Renesmee was pretty sure that Jack hadn't actually been trying to bite her father. He was just in pain and unhappy. Edward certainly hadn't seemed upset by it, although her father's expression was hard for the little girl to read right now, and more than once Edward had murmured a soft apology when his treatments of Jack's wounds were too heavy handed, drawing the softest of growls or grunts of pain from the wolf's throat.

When she placed her palm against his muzzle, showing her wolf through her thoughts all off the pleasant moments that she had shared with him, with their Pack, with her family, Jack's growling ceased into a silence. He could have shifted his muzzle away, but instead he pressed his nose more fully against her palm, as if seeking the reassurance of her thoughts. So Renesmee thought about anything and everything that she was able, from Socrates to soft tacos, a stream of consciousness that was much more fluid than the precise patterns the little girl usually tried to keep her thoughts directed in.

Throughout it all, his eyes never left the stars above them, never strayed from the star that she had given him. It wasn't the one she had initially picked out, but somewhere between Canis Major and Canis Minor, the dog stars, and Orion the hunter that owned them, Renesmee had been unable to shake the feeling that she was looking in the wrong part of the sky. She really couldn't say why she picked Caph, the second brightest star in the Cassiopeia constellation, when Schedar, the star right next to Caph was so much brighter, but Caph was the star she had chosen.

For some reason, it just seemed better that way.

Renesmee was finally running out of things to think about, had taken refuge in replaying her favorite movie and television scenes in their heads, even though she doubted that Jack would like The Clique any more than Jacob had and most of the general populace didn't seem to find space exploration documentaries nearly as fascinating as Renesmee did. She was midway through the Apollo missions, her father's eyes starting to glaze over a little as Edward sat watch over them both, when Jack finally pushed his nose deeper into her palm, snuffing wetly before the large wolf very painfully climbed to his feet.

"Mister Jack? Are you sure you're okay enough to get up?" Renesmee asked worriedly, her hand slipping from his ear to his leg as he stood, and Renesmee didn't realize that she had her fingers twisted tightly into his brindle coat until his action pulled her to her feet as well. Plain brown eyes regarded her before the wolf gingerly picked up the bundle of spare clothes that they had brought with them, grimacing at the taste of them in his mouth before limping off deeper into the trees. His wounded leg was healing, but the movement made fresh blood spread across his already crimson stained coat.

"Daddy?" Renesmee turned to her father, who had also stood, and who had begun gathering up the medical supplies. "Daddy, he's still hurt."

Edward gave her a tight smile, shaking his head. "He only stayed this long for you, Nessie," her father told her quietly. "I can't understand his thoughts, but after Carlisle's call, every time you weren't in his head, he was panicking in the same words over and over again. I assume it was over returning to La Push. His Alpha needs him and for the wolves that's a hard thing for them to resist."

Renesmee bit her lip, and then looked up at her father with eyes that gleamed wetly in the darkness. "Daddy…do you think Seth is going to die?"

The bronze haired vampire gave her a sad look, and his unwillingness to answer made Renesmee's lip tremble. It was so much easier when she only had her wolf to focus on, to worry about. Edward sighed and picked his daughter up, keeping her braced easily in his left arm as he finished picking up the supplies. "It'll all be okay, Nessie," he told her quietly, hugging her close as their sharp ears caught the telltale sound of Jack phasing human.

It was a cracking noise, audible to human ears and probably sounding similar to a gunshot, but for Renesmee it was different. For her the sound was almost beautiful in its complexity, because the cracking noise wasn't just one single break. It was a symphony of tiny crystalline shatterings, all so fast that for a human it would sound like they were happening all at once, but instead were one after another, smaller ones on top of larger ones. The wolf's body was changing, shifting in the most structural of senses, the bones and sinew and matter reconstituting itself into a form that was denser, more compact, more human.

Briefly, Renesmee wondered where all the fur was supposed to go.

And then she didn't have time to wonder or think about the small choking noise her father made, because her wolf was staggering out of the trees. He was wearing one of the spare pairs of sweats that the Alpha kept at their place, apparently it bothered Jake out to wear clothes that smelled too much like vampire, and they were much too long for Jack. The drawstring had been tied tightly, and Renesmee realized that she had never seen her wolf's torso before, was not prepared for the amount of old scarring that curled over his shoulders onto the top part of his chest, that crisscrossed his ribcage on both sides. Renesmee knew that the wolves could get hurt, but she had known that Jacob's scar from Mexico wasn't faded away yet, but she flinched at the sight, wondered what could have caused that kind of damage that it would still show to this day.

It occurred to her that where the other wolves were nearly flawless, and the comparison was her wolf and the rest of them was harsh. It was then that Renesmee realized something very awful about herself: ugliness frightened her.

She knew, she _knew_ that she shouldn't be bothered by the scarring, but Renesmee had spent her whole life being surrounded by the most beautiful creatures that existed in the world. Her family was designed for a specific purpose, to appeal to the senses, their bodies and voices and smells the very essence of beauty. The wolves were similar in that they were built for power, for speed, for strength, and that carried over into a more particular but equally attractiveness of form. Renesmee had a few humans she spent time with, and they were less beautiful but they were loved, so it was mostly subconsciously that she ever noticed the differences. But in her wolf she could see the imperfections, the ugliness carved into him, and it upset her. Deeply.

It upset her and Renesmee only could see a little of it, couldn't see the origin of the scars across his back, couldn't see the newer wounds that were on top of them. Feeling as if she must be terrible for even noticing in the first place, Renesmee tried not to stare, but it was too late. Her wolf took two steps towards them, saw her face, and then ducked his head, backing back into the woods with the shirt still in his hand.

He was her wolf, but he wasn't as beautiful as she was. If they were supposed to be imprint and wolf, didn't that mean they were supposed to be the same? Was it that she couldn't see the beauty in his scars? Or was it that she was ugly too, if more hidden beneath the surface?

"Renesmee, it's okay to be surprised and it's also okay to be momentarily uncomfortable," Edward chided her softly. "But it's not fair to judge someone for things they can't control. Scars don't change who a person is, and it's not fair to make their past troubles a reflection of your own concerns. His scars have nothing to do with you."

Abashed, Renesmee dipped her head, and she bit her lip again when her wolf came out of the woods again, Jacob's shirt on his torso. It must have been painful to pull on over his wounds, and Renesmee found herself wanting to cry, thinking that she had made him feel like that. "I'm sorry, Mister Jack," Renesmee whispered before he had gotten very far, and her father hugged her tighter. It was important to apologize to someone if you've been unkind to them, her parents believed, and Edward gave Renesmee a nod of approval.

"Be easy, imprint and Packmate," Jack told her quietly as he approached, his left arm held awkwardly at his side, still sore where Collin's teeth had crunched down on it and wounded him. He gave her the smallest of smiles, adding, "They disturb me as well and I have had many years to become used to them."

Renesmee nodded, still feeling ashamed of herself, but she very carefully tried to school her thoughts away from that.

Her father gave Jack a frown. "You're going to be in rough shape by the time you make it to La Push, Jack," Edward decided. "It's closer to the coven. We can drive you to the border, or lend you a car."

Even as Edward spoke, Renesmee could see her father's hesitation. Jack's injuries, combined with the fact that he was pale and drawn, meant that it wouldn't be very safe to let him drive right now. Jack seemed to understand that as well because the ancient wolf shook his head.

"The Alpha is calling me," Jack said softly, his expression clouded, pained. "Our Beta is fading…I have to go now, I can't wait any longer." He looked away, off towards La Push, and then back at her father. "The Alpha is the strongest if he is surrounded by his Pack. He gives our Beta strength through all of us. Returning to your coven will take too long."

All of them. Did all of them included her? Renesmee's gut told her that it did. After all, she'd been feeling pulled towards La Push ever since Jacob had left to go help Seth.

Her wolf looked like he wanted to say something else, but then his eyes shifted her way, and Renesmee saw him bow his head and turn to go. It would have been easiest to stay where she was, to stay safe at her father's side and to worry about her Pack from afar. Renesmee had seen the light go out in a creature's eyes, and she loved the light in Seth's eyes, and she didn't know…she just didn't know what she would do if she saw that happen to him. Just the thought had tears welling up in her eyes, but if she could do something, anything to help…

"Daddy, I want to go." The little girl decided, trying her best to be brave even if she didn't necessarily feel that way. "If I can help Jacob help Seth, then I want to go. Please."

Her wolf stopped as Renesmee pressed her palm against her father's neck. "Please," she asked again. "I'll be okay."

Edward pursed his lips, looking unhappy. "Nessie, I don't think that the Clearwater's is the best place for you to be right now," her father decided as he set her down on her feet. "You haven't eaten in a while, and I don't think you realize how hard it will be to see Seth like that. It'll be upsetting, Ness. When he starts getting better, you can go then."

"But what if he doesn't?" Renesmee asked softly. "What if Seth doesn't get better, but he could have if I'd been brave enough to go too? What if I could help and I didn't?"

Edward frowned deeper, and the little girl could see the hurt in her father's eyes. "Seth is my friend as well, Ness, but the reservation is a dangerous place right now for vampires. I would need to go with you, and Carlisle's the only one of our coven that they all trust enough to let on their land right now. I want to be there too, but it's just not a good idea, honey."

And that should have been that, but Edward had let something slip. It was small, smaller than most would have noticed, but when her father said Seth's name, his voice had changed ever so softly, deepened into a sadness and regret that she had never heard from him before. It occurred to her then that her father was sure Seth was going to die, and that's why he was keeping her away.

For the first time in almost four years, Renesmee threw a fit.

The last fit had been when she was only a few days old, back when she hadn't gotten to see her mother yet and she had grown impatient in waiting for so very long to finally get to meet Bella. She had let out a cry, one of her first ever, and had been very upset until they had finally handed her over to her mother. It had been a long time since then, and her family had always been very good about making sure she was kept content. Renesmee was a sweet, sensitive child who didn't like upsetting others, and even when she disagreed with the decisions the adults around her made, she always tried to respect and abide by those decisions.

The little girl had never expected those words from her father to trigger such a massive outburst.

Edward himself stood shocked and mildly horrified as his sweet little girl cried and yelled and cried some more. Renesmee wasn't sure what she said, only that the more she cried, the more hysterical she became, so much so that even Edwards attempts at comforting her and his following attempts at sternly telling her to stop, none of them worked. Finally her father picked her up and carried her back to the coven, past her equally horrified looking family, a limping and worried Jack trailing at their heels.

When her father finally sat her down on the porch, her family clustering about her to see what was wrong, Renesmee ignored them all and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. Locking the door wouldn't stop a vampire from coming through to get to her, but locking the door would hurt their feelings, and for the first time in her life, Renesmee did something to deliberately upset her family. Then she grabbed the sweatshirt that Seth had given her, the one she liked to wear when she knew he was coming just to see her. It was too small now, she had been growing too much recently, and when it occurred to her that she might not ever get another Seth sweatshirt again, the little girl began to sob into her pillows.

Renesmee ignored the voices at the door, her worried parents, her sweet grandmother, and when she felt her Uncle Jasper arrive, having come back from helping Emmett and Rose guard the La Push borders, the deliberate calming of her emotions made her start calmly breaking everything in sight. She was upset, and she wanted to stay upset, and it wasn't fair that her Uncle Jasper wouldn't let her be upset when Renesmee felt that she had every right to be.

When she took a pair of scissors to her clothes, quiet tears pouring down her face, her Aunt Alice convinced her Uncle Jasper to leave her alone. It was too late, though. His calming influence had done its job, and Renesmee's tantrum was done. In place of her anger was her shame. On this horrible of days, Renesmee had made things worse, had reacted in the worst of ways, and now she was so embarrassed by how she had treated everyone that she wanted to hide. She had not only embarrassed herself in front of her family, but also in front of her wolf. Renesmee was _sure_ that she was the worst daughter and the worst imprint ever.

And Seth was going to die and she wasn't going to be there. It was all so _awful_.

There had been a lot of knocks on her door in the last hour, but the last one was accompanied by a scent that had never been up on the second floor of their home before. It was her wolf, Jack. He had stayed. It was that which shamed her the most, because of all of them, her wolf had the least time to accommodate her misbehavior. Miserably, Renesmee tried to wipe the tears off of her face, a face now splotchy and red, but her eyes were puffy and there was no hiding that she had been crying. Renesmee tugged at her sweatshirt, wrapped her fingers around the hem of it, and unlocked her door. She automatically looked up, only to find that her wolf was squatting in the hallway so that he was at her height.

Renesmee was all cried out, but she gave him a look of such sadness that even she could see Jack's expression change because of it. For a moment his eyes, so often clouded and distant, focused in on her and seemed to soften. The rough pad of his thumb touched her cheek, brushed away a spot of moisture her own fingers had missed, and then very carefully her wolf placed her palm against his own.

"Ayásochid, Renesmee?" he asked her softly, for once not tapping his thumb against her palm, as if he knew she was beyond words right now. So she told him as best as she was able through her jumbled and unhappy thoughts. She was sad and hurt and confused and frightened and embarrassed, and for some reason she felt like her heart was tearing itself out of her chest.

When she was done, she let her hand drop away, whispering, "I'm sorry, Mister Jack. I don't know what's wrong with me." She was so ashamed.

Her wolf exhaled and looked at the carpet between them. "It's not your fault, imprint," Jack said, sighing. "You are tied deeply to the ones that bind us all, and they are in pain. I…I'm sure that I'm not helping. I will have to try harder."

Renesmee didn't quite understand that, but she did understand that he was absolving her of her guilt, placing the blame on himself and others and that didn't seem right. It seemed far too easy for him to say that the worst behavior she had ever shown had been justified. Of course, arguing with an adult right now was far down the list of ways to redeem herself, so Renesmee tugged on her sweatshirt again, shifted in place unhappily.

Jack must have come to speak with her for a reason, but this was her wolf, a person capable of spending very periods of time in silence. Maybe he _hadn't_ come to speak with her, like her family had tried, maybe he had simply just come to her and that was all. Her wolf must be in pain, she could smell the wounds on his back as they oozed slightly in blood and healing fluids, she could see the tautness in his chest and shoulders as he knelt. And despite the fact that he seemed to be trying to keep his face passive, his eyes flickered more often than normal. He was impatient, a state her wolf was rarely in. And yet still he remained, surrounded by those so different than him, those he had stayed away from until her.

He stayed for her, and she wanted to go for Seth. Was that so very wrong?

"Is it so bad that I want to go?" Renesmee asked her wolf, feeling childish at the tone of pleading in her voice. "Please, it feels so important that I be there, too. Mister Jack, may I go?"

An odd expression crossed Jack's face, and it seemed as if he was choosing his words very carefully. "I'm your Packmate, Renesmee, and I am the wolf who has imprinted on you. My place is in protection of you and support of you, to try and please you if I'm able. There is no 'permission' between us. However I would wish…" Jack trailed off uncomfortably, and instinctively Renesmee reached for his hand, tapping her thumb against his palm just as he so often did to her. It was his way of asking her to talk, and his lips curved slightly at her silent request for him to do the same. "I would wish to not have you there, imprint," her wolf admitted softly. "The ways of living and the ways of death are hurtful to you. I would not wish to see you saddened, and today will not be an easy day. Our Pack is in pain."

Renesmee understood, and it was so deeply engrained in her to make the people around her happy, especially her wolf. She wanted so badly for him to approve of her actions, but at the moment, she wanted to be with Seth and Jacob more. So she squared her little shoulders and she gave him an apologetic bob of her head, and then steeled her resolve. "Mister Jack? I think I'd like to go talk to my parents, please."

The ancient wolf sighed and bowed his head in acquiescence.

Her parents were standing at the bottom of the stairs, whispering to each other in hard tones as Renesmee slipped down the stairs, the ancient wolf padding at her heels. Obviously her mother and father did not agree with each other, whatever they were discussing, but Renesmee tugged her sweatshirt down more and stood in front of them as properly as she knew how to. Jack stood off to the side, halfway between Renesmee and Bella, staring out of the window as if watching something only he could see.

"Mommy, Daddy, I'm really sorry for how I acted. Mister Jack says that it's not my fault, that it's the Pack bonds that are making me upset, but my behavior still wasn't okay. I don't mind if you ground me however long you need to, because I understand I was wrong. But please, if I could, before I'm grounded I would like to go see Seth. I love him very much, and I love Jacob too."

Bella frowned, walking over and wrapping her arms around Renesmee's shoulders in a comforting hug. "Renesmee, your father and I don't think you should go, and Jack doesn't think you should go either. Why is it that you're so set on this?"

Why? She wasn't sure why, but she believed her words as they slipped off of her tongue. "Because my Pack needs me."

And that, apparently, was that, because her father sighed tiredly. "This is against our better judgment, Nessie, but you've never fought this hard for anything. We don't condone your behavior, but we're not entirely without understanding. Just this once, because we know how important Seth and Jacob are to you. But you need to know that further tantrums won't work in your favor."

"Yes, Daddy," Renesmee whispered, hugging her mother tightly. "Thank you, thank you both."

Bella nodded and then turned to her wolf. "Are you okay with taking her with you, Jack?" Bella asked, and her wolf gave a small nod. Apparently him not wanting her there was not enough to keep him from bringing her with him. Renesmee gave Jack a smile of appreciation, but he just nodded again.

"When you get there, call us immediately," her father continued. "Stay out of the way and keep near your grandfather, and if you start to get thirsty at all, you have to tell someone immediately." Edward's eyes narrowed as he turned and regarded her wolf. "Jack? You asked for us to trust her with you and this is your chance. I watched you nearly break your neck protecting our daughter, and I watched you have the self-control to not fight back even with Collin attacking you. We're inclined to give you more freedom in ours and Nessie's lives, but I need to make this very clear to you. If _anything_ happens to her between the treaty line and the Clearwater's, you _will_ be dealt with and you won't be dealing with just me."

Renesmee blinked at the obvious threat, but her wolf merely stood there with half lidded eyes. "I understand," he said tonelessly, but Renesmee appreciated the fact that Jack had left off the standard 'Cold One' that usual followed her father's more aggressive statements. She also appreciated Jack's murmured, "Thank you for the healing that you gave."

It wasn't much, but it was something.

Her parents made her drink a mug of cold blood and insisted on driving her and Jack to the borderline. It was obvious that Jack was extremely uncomfortable in the car, and he kept his face pressed against the window, sucking in tight breathes as he tried not to lean back against the seat. When they pulled off the road, where Jack and Renesmee could cut straight through the woods in a direct line to Seth's house, the wolf nearly fell out of the car, causing another harshly whispered discussion between Edward and Bella over if this was truly a good thing to let Renesmee go with only Jack as protection.

"She is right," Jack told them finally, tiredly. "Our Alpha is strongest with his Pack around him. It is possible that having just one of us closer will mean the difference. I am still capable of keeping her safe, if we do not stay here speaking of it much longer."

Bella sighed and reached out to put her hand on Jack's arm. He shifted away, looked suddenly uncomfortable and wary, like he was cornered, and Bella pulled back her hand, closing her fingers. "Please, Jack, tell Sue we're so sorry," Bella whispered, looking as close to tears as a vampire who couldn't cry could ever look. "We all love Seth very much."

And then Jack was slipping away through the trees, still managing to be silent on his feet despite the pained hunching of his shoulders, the soreness in his left arm, and the shuffling of his steps. In another time Renesmee would have reveled in the freedom of being alone with her wolf, of having one of her rare excursions away from her family, but she was subdued as she followed her wolf through the woods. She didn't feel as if she belonged here, she had only been onto the reservation a couple times and always in Jacob's company, and she hoped her wolf couldn't tell that she was uncomfortable when she had fought so hard to get to come along with him.

With each step into the trees, Renesmee felt her heart began to twist tighter, like a nut that was already snug being forced to turn a little more. Every time she thought about Seth, it twisted. Every time she worried about Jacob, it twisted. Every time she saw another dark wet patch on the shirt that lay loose across her wolf's back, it twisted. And when she didn't think it could twist anymore, Jack stopped, pressed his hand against a tree to brace himself for a moment, tried to stifle the pained noise in his throat. A human wouldn't have heard it, but she could. Again, her little heart twisted.

"Mister Jack, do you need a moment to rest?" Renesmee asked softly, hoping that he wouldn't think her forward or think her ordering him on what to do. Renesmee had heard Leah joking often about Claire and Quil, how Claire told Quil what to do and how funny it was when Quil complied, but Renesmee didn't want to be that person.

"Yapótalli, Renesmee, that's all," her wolf said, his voice weary. "Be easy, Packmate. This is not so very bad."

She didn't know what that word meant, but she catalogued his expression, his body language, his tone of voice as he said it and she filed that information away for the next time he used it. Jack wasn't fooling her, though. Renesmee had seen the damage, knew how bad it actually was and she was impressed he was moving as well as he had done so far. Renesmee wanted to help but didn't know how to help, so she stood where she was and waited patiently until he pushed himself off of the tree and moved on.

In the back of her mind she wondered if Neel came back, would her wolf be strong enough to fight him? If Jack wasn't, Renesmee decided that she would have to be braver still, and do her best to help. She was fast and she had sharp teeth.

"I don't know what you are thinking, imprint," Jack murmured eventually. "But you are thinking especially hard, even for one that thinks as much as you."

Renesmee blushed a little at that, but then decided to be honest. "I was trying to determine the most effective strategy in fighting a full grown vampire if he came back and tried to hurt you, Mister Jack," Renesmee admitted. "Thus far, I believe that my speed and my fangs are my greatest assets, although my size may or may not be a negative factor in eluding the enemy."

Her wolf was quiet for a moment, and then he glanced back over his shoulder at her, where she was trying carefully to stay in his foot prints. It was hard, his legs were long and his tracks uncommonly light. Jack looked paler than normal but he still have her that small curved smile. "Perhaps another day I will relax back and allow my imprint to fend for us both, but until then I am content to do the fending. You have courage, imprint, and a heart far larger than you know, but you will face no enemies when with me this day."

"But what if Neel comes back, Mister Jack?" Renesmee asked, her voice tinged with worry. "It is sound battle strategy, after all. If the Pack has been weakened, now is the opportune moment for him to strike back. It occurred to me that as the only imprint with enhanced physical abilities that it was important that I be ready to support everyone…you know, just in case."

Jack's back was growing damper, and his teeth gritted together whenever he had to step over some brush or climb a rock, but the look he gave her was mild and almost gently amused. "The young fish in the school needs only worry that it stays in the school, imprint. The older, more experienced fish are better suited to the edge of the masses, are content to stand alone as they swim."

"Just because a fish is older, doesn't mean that it's expendable, Mister Jack," Renesmee said softly, biting her lip again and twisting her sweatshirt fabric between her fingers. She forced herself to ignore the smell of her wolf's blood. She wasn't hungry and it made her sick to think of hurting him more than he already was. "Don't the indigenous cultures respect the wisdom that comes with age? It seems unlikely that the eldest and the wisest would get placed in a position to be eaten all up first. That doesn't seem consistent. Maybe because a man isn't a fish?"

Her wolf paused mid-step, then he smiled despite his pain. "Some men are fish, Renesmee. I have known such men, ones who were born to swim, whose scales glitter and never fade. I know the safety that is their presence in guarding the masses."

"Like Jacob?" Renesmee asked, and her wolf stepped slightly differently, his track deeper in the snow than before. Absently Renesmee wondered what was the difference, what made his previous steps light and this one less so.

"Our Alpha is one such man," Jack agreed, and then Renesmee gave him a proud look, trotting two steps forward so that she was almost even at his side.

"Like you, Mister Jack?" she added, and her wolf smiled slightly.

"My scales are…perhaps more dull," her wolf murmured placidly. "But until you grow scales of your own, I am content to hold my place while you swim, Packmate. It's better this way, for you are far faster a swimmer than I will ever be."

Renesmee couldn't help her smile at that, then immediately felt guilty for enjoying herself when Seth was so hurt. So she fell back behind her wolf the way she had been earlier, and tried to be quieter and worry on a less noticeable level.

It wasn't long until they grew closer to their destination, although far longer than it would have normally taken them. Her wolf's shirt was sticking to his back in a way that must have been terribly uncomfortable, and his breathing was harsh. Renesmee's father had been right when he said that this walk was going to leave Jack in rough shape. The little girl was wondering if she should suggest they stop again, but that tug towards her Alpha was growing stronger with every step, and she knew they were close. Suddenly, Renesmee was hit with the hardest desire to be near Jacob that she had ever felt, so overpowering that she had taken a lunging step forward before she realized what she was doing. It was a desire that faded away as quickly as it came.

Blinking, Renesmee realized that something had just leaked through the imprint bond between herself and her wolf, and that it was Jack's need to get to Jacob that she had felt. For a moment she was stunned that Jack had been able to wait so long at all, because it was all Renesmee could do not to dash forward heedlessly through the woods, to head for the spot that she somehow just absolutely knew her Alpha was at.

The smell on the wind was what made her stay, what made her shift closer to Jack wordlessly.

They must have been directly behind the Clearwater home, where the backyard lay flush against the woods, because Renesmee could smell it before she could see it. The house reeked of sickness, of approaching death, and a deep inhalation of it made Renesmee cringe and stop in her tracks. The hospital smelled like this sometimes, although Seth's house was lacking the astringent scent of antiseptics that always accompanied the hospital. Instinctively she reached for her wolf's hand. Jack paused when she did, and he turned, looking down at her. Then Jack dropped to his heels, an action that had to have been torturous from his wounds, but he did it anyways. She was coming to realize that her wolf didn't like standing above her, that he much preferred to put himself on her level. Renesmee liked to think it made it easier for him to see the world through her eyes, and in her own way.

"Ayásochid, Renesmee?" he asked her again quietly in his deep voice, and Renesmee bit her lower lip, dropping his hand. She knew that he preferred her to talk to him as opposed to relying on her gift to express the things that were so hard for her to say. She had used her gift enough on him for one day.

English would have been easier, but for some reason, Quileute felt better. Language was a tool for her, a way of explaining her thoughts and ideas with more concision and clarity as her vocabulary expanded. But for the little girl, emotions were expressed in contact, in her skin against another's, and it was so much harder to speak them aloud. She decided then that English, French, Latin, Spanish…these were all the languages of her brain. But Quileute…Quileute was the language of her heart. And her heart was hurting.

"Hìtkwotalítali, Mister Jack," she whispered back, her eyes once more brimming with tears. "I don't want Seth to die."

Because she could smell that he was, and that made it far too real. She could see her wolf waver, confusion passing over his face as he seemed torn. For a moment she thought he was going to hug her, or pick her up maybe, but instead he sank to his knees in the snow and shifted back onto his heels so that she was slightly taller than him.

"Renesmee?" Jack said gently, looking up at her. "Our Beta is one of the last true Tlokwali, and as such it is his honor to live for and die for his people. If he passes from this world into the spirit world, he will run at the side of Taha Aki himself, will hunt will the brothers and sisters that have lived since the first Cold One attacked our people. If he dies, he will be buried at A-Ka-Lat, and I will sing the mourning songs of the Kwòlíyoť from sunrise to sunrise, in honor of him. I will watch over his family, hunt for them if they are hungry, and clothe them if they are cold. Over my fires I will tell of Seth Clearwater, Tlokwali and hla'o only to our Alpha, of his life and his kindness and his bravery. And I will be proud to have called him brother, and also my friend. What will you do?"

What would she do? Renesmee had always been privately frightened at the thought of losing someone she loved, had imagined that terrible emptiness where that person should be, had envisioned going to a funeral, of crying in her mother's arms. But that would have been her feelings and her actions and her loss. It centered around her, and her alone. What would she do? What _could_ she do? Renesmee tried to think back on all the conversations she and Seth had ever had. So many had been about her, what she was doing, what she enjoyed. Renesmee had always been so excited to share her world with Seth that she had rarely tried to pry deeper into his own. What mattered the most to _Seth_?

That wasn't so hard to decipher. His family and his Pack mattered the most to Seth. Protecting those he loved mattered to Seth. And something smaller, something more personal had mattered to Seth, and that was spending his birthdays with his father. Harry and Seth had shared the same birthday, and Seth had always told Renesmee that it was "their day", Seth and Harry's, and that spending it without Harry never seemed right, no matter how many friends and family Seth had. He would always spend the day leaning up against a gravestone and telling Harry everything Seth had been glad about that year, everything he hoped for in the next. Bringing his dad a bottle of beer and some fish fry, even if the Beta ate it every time. It was Seth's most important thing, spending his birthday with his father, his father spending a birthday with him.

Renesmee wasn't sure why of all the things, that particular one stood out for her.

"I…I will go see Seth on his birthday," Renesmee decided, wondering if that was good enough. For someone whose heart was as big as Seth Clearwater's, could it be anywhere _close_ to being good enough? "And I'll go see Mr. Clearwater too, and eat fish for both of them. And…and I'll tell everyone how nice he was. And I'll…I'll watch football and cheer for his team. And I'll tease Jacob. Seth always said that no one teased Jacob enough." Renesmee looked at her wolf anxiously. "Mister Jack? Is that okay? Is that what I should do?"

Jack gave her a kind smile, rested his hand on her head briefly. "It is for you and you alone to decide how to honor the people you love, Packmate. And if anyone says otherwise, I will fight for your right to do so. Be easy, Renesmee. Your decisions are safe and are your own."

Despite the softness of his tone, there was strength in his words, and it was a strange feeling to know that strength was behind her. Her family had always protected her, watched out for her, intervened if needed over her, but this was different. Her decisions were _hers_. It shouldn't have felt like such a strange concept, but it did, and yet somehow made her feel like the ground beneath her feet was firmer, steadier. Funny, Renesmee had never even realized that it wasn't as solid as it was now.

"Mister Jack, can we go see Seth now?" Renesmee asked politely, wiping her tears away, and the wolf in front of her nodded, silent rising to his feet. Renesmee followed him, determined to be as brave as she should be, but when they crossed the back yard, passing so very close to Seth's bedroom window, Renesmee could smell it again. This time when she reached for her wolf's hand, his warm fingers closed around her own.

This time, neither one of them let go.

* * *

The child was frightened, despite how determinedly she was following him into his Packmate's house. Normally Jack would still have been bothered by this, because the smell of his imprint's fear aroused an instant protectiveness in him that was instinctual and unavoidable. The problem was that he was injured, and even among his own Pack, that injury made him feel weaker and at a disadvantage.

On his own he would have dealt with it, kept his head a little lower, shied away from the more dominant wolves until he was stronger. But Jack had his imprint with him and that made things more complicated. Adding her fear made it even worse, shoved his protective instincts into overdrive, and Jack didn't even realize that he was growling softly as he let go of her hand and stepped in front of her, blocking the back entrance of the house as he came face to face with his Packmates.

The whole Pack was gathered in the living room, with the exception of the Alpha and his imprint, although Jack could smell both in the next room over where the Beta lay. Instantly he was uncertain of his place among them, was assaulted by his guilt for turning on one of them, and the instinct slammed him again to go run, to hide away in his hurt and his shame. But his imprint was behind him and she had needed so badly to be here, and Jack needed to be here as well. He just didn't know if he was welcome.

The love of an Alpha didn't necessarily mean the love of a Pack.

"Mister Jack?" his imprint asked softly from behind him, and Jack shifted so that he was in front of her more completely, even though sweat had broken out across his forehead and the room began to swim.

The pup had torn into him mercilessly, and the Cold One had stated that several of Collin's claws had come dangerously close to his spinal column, scratching but not severing the nerves and vertebrae. What would have laid out a human for weeks if not months merely left Jack sickened to his stomach as his wounds healed, a sickness that grew in intensity at the proximity to his Alpha. The Alpha was keeping Seth alive by sheer force of will and to do it Jake had been pulling on them all, even Jack when Jack was at the coven, but Jake was pulling much harder on him now that Jack was close by.

Gritting his teeth and digging in, Jack held himself upright and faced his Pack. He expected to see their anger, their hatred of him in their eyes. He expected to feel the weight of their blame. Instead he just saw their hurt and their sadness. They were such a young Pack, unused to the potential loss of a Packmate, unused to an Alpha taking this much from them. Jared, whose brother had been killed, was there. He had a blankness in his stare that accompanied the numbness of loss, and it made Jack's heart hurt to see. Jared was seated on the couch between his imprint and Brady, and Jared had an arm wrapped tightly around his imprint, crushing her to his side, with his other hand fisted unconsciously on the back of Brady's neck.

Jack wondered if in his pain if Jared understood the look in the pup's eyes, the vicious loyalty that raged beneath the bowed head, that lay dormant under the submissive slump of Brady's shoulders. It was a dangerous thing, what Brady felt for Jared, the Packbonds twisting them all ever tighter. Jack had once been given that kind of loyalty. It was a violent breaking on both sides when that loyalty was ripped away.

The others were clustered together, but Collin was off by himself, physically separated from his Packmates, the way Jack so often forced himself to be. There were a few bruises on Collin's face and arms, marks of blue and black and green that were healing, but none of those bruises matched the bruised expression in his eyes. The only one close to Collin was Cassie, and she was giving Jack a sad look even as she kept her small arm wrapped around Collin's waist. The pup leaned against her heavily, as if he was close to crumpling beneath his own weight, and miserably Collin hung his head and wouldn't meet Jack's eyes. For once in the dominance game between them, Collin was giving way.

In the kitchen, an elderly woman was crying as she washed dishes. Near the sink, the she-wolf looked haunted, hurting, and when Jack stepped into the room, Leah exhaled painfully.

"It's about time, asshole," Leah said as she wiped at her face. "Did you just _stroll_ over here?"

Her words harsh and cruel, but Jack didn't take them as such. He had known her, if only for a night, but they were Pack. To become a lover of a she-wolf was to accept a level of permanent attachment between them both. So Jack understood when despite her words the she-wolf crossed over to him, understood as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his collarbone, a choking sob escaping her throat. "Why weren't you here sooner?" Leah hissed against Jack's shirt. "He almost…he's almost…why the _hell_ weren't you here sooner?"

Jack fought his nausea and dizziness and rested his hand on Leah's hair, making a soft comforting note in his throat and resisting the urge to draw her behind him where his imprint stood, to place himself in front of them both. "I'm here now, Packmate," was all he could say.

Jack's eyes swept over the others before finally his gaze found Paul's. The ancient wolf lowered his eyes respectfully, addressing the Third, their Qa'al, and the one who was in charge. "I accept that I may not be welcome, but my imprint is of the Tlokwali and has the right to be present at this place," Jack spoke respectfully to Paul in Quileute, even as he shifted against Leah, letting her take what reassurance she could from him. "If I am unwelcome, I will leave, but I request her be allowed to stay."

"I hear you," Paul grunted in their native tongue, and then the tall wolf exhaled tiredly, glaring at Jack as he switched to English. "She was always accepted, Jack, and it's an insult for you to assume that you're not. Get your ass inside and sit the down before you _fall_ down. A hurt Packmate is supposed to come to us, not run away from us, and you look like hell. I'm almost as pissed with you right now as I am with Collin."

Leah pulled away, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and turned her own glare at the Third. "It's not his fault Collin's an idiot, Paul," Leah snapped. "And maybe if you weren't so fucking _preoccupied_ with making money then you actually would have _been_ here when we needed you!"

By the collected sighs going through the room it was clear that this wasn't the first time Leah had snarled at Paul that night. Jack understood, though. Leah was a she-wolf, and it was in her nature to fight the world around her with everything she had, especially when the things she loved were slipping away from her. Paul was the strongest, the most capable of standing up to her anger, although the Third was looking just as drained as Jack felt.

"We ran as fast as we could, Leah," Paul sighed unhappily, and he braced himself for another fight. The Alpha and the Beta were strong enough to contain her when she was upset, most of the time anyways, and Paul was very strong indeed, but not strong enough. Jack understood that, understood how angry and volatile the young females could be, and he understood that Paul would need some help. When the she-wolf started to take a step forward, her teeth bared to rip into Paul again, Jack reached for her hand with the intent to tug her back to him, to show her his throat and distract her. Unfortunately Jake pulled, harder this time than the times before, and Jack staggered half a step.

"Shit," someone cursed, and then an arm was under his, keeping him on his feet. It was the she-wolf, and Jack groaned, leaned into her shoulder briefly and blinked. The world re-solidified and he straightened up again. Leah was growling, her pretty brown eyes red-rimmed as she twisted and snarled back into the far corner of the room. "Dammit, Collin, everything's bad enough already, and look what you fucking _did_ to him!"

This started a rash of yelling that made Jack's head spin, made him shift back in front of Renesmee again, push her back a step away from them instinctively. However, when Paul stepped up to Jack, poised to catch him if he fell, Jack exhaled a sigh of relief. He trusted the Third, trusted in Paul completely.

"Qa'al," Jack said quietly. "Hítkwollo xaxíktiya. Renesmee-" And then Jack heard himself speaking quietly but quickly to his Third about his imprint's need to be there, about her thirst and what she would need if she grew too hungry. Jack heard himself repeating words long forgotten, the ritualistic request for an imprint's protection and care by a more dominant wolf when one felt themselves incapable. Jack admitted to Paul that he felt guilty pressing one more thing upon his Third's shoulders, but if Jack could just have a few moments to gather himself, he believed he could take his duties back. Jack was injured, was not fit for protecting her against multiple enemies, would the Qa'al protect her in his stead?

After a pause, Paul stepped closer, inhaled deeply and then agreed. Exhaling as that weight of responsibility lifted off of his shoulders, Jack shifted so that his imprint could move into the house unhindered. He rested his weight against the doorframe, considered whether or not it would be appropriate to slip into the backyard and stay out there.

"Sit down, Jack," Paul said again, his voice a low dangerous growl that Jack was too tired to be scared of. "You look like you're going to drop any second."

The trip across the reservation, being constantly on his guard to protect his imprint, had drained Jack of his remaining energy. The Third greeted Jack's imprint by picking her up, hoisting her against his shoulder, and Renesmee was already peering towards the room where the Beta lay behind closed doors. It was easy enough to do as the Third bid, although Jack preferred to do so where he felt less eyes upon him, outside where even wolfskin might find relief from pain through the cold. So he shifted out of the doorway away from the she-wolf, secure in knowing his Third would guard his imprint. To be honest, Jack didn't even feel the cold of the snow as he sank down against the outside wall near the Beta's bedroom window, but he could feel the chilled inside his torn flesh. Plus he was close to Jake like this. Proximity would help the Alpha, the Alpha was pulling on them all for more strength, and closer was better.

It burned his shoulders badly to lean against the siding, so Jack shifted sideways, his shoulder against the wall and his eyes closed. His ears stayed open, however, listening to his imprint call her parents and let them know she had arrived safely, listening to her ask soft worried questions to their Pack about the wolves in the bedroom. She asked if she could talk to her grandfather but was told by someone, Leah's mother, that the Cold One was draining Seth's wounds. She asked if she should go check on Jack, but she was told not to worry. Jack was hurt and sometimes being hurt meant you needed to be left alone for a while. She worried about how to help Jake, should she do anything particular? No, it was good enough that she came. They would turn on a movie for her to watch and she should fall asleep if she was able to, because it would help the Pack if she was well rested.

Was there anything, anything at all that she could do? No, but someone would get her some chocolate milk.

As he sat out in the cold, listening and feeling a child worry, it occurred to him that of all the people he had known in his very long lifetime, that perhaps Renesmee cared the most. She cared about everyone and everything, to a fault perhaps, but Jack decided he liked her how she was. He didn't want her to see him like this, didn't want her to have to see the Pack's pain, but he decided that he'd rather have her care about them while she was sitting there with them. It was much too sad to think of her off alone and caring about them all by herself.

His dead Alpha, who had been so soft, so infrequent in his mind this past day, thought that Jack could stare at his reflection in the water for a lifetime and still never see his own face.

Ignoring his oldest friend's voice, Jack concentrated on his Alpha, giving Jake as much as he could. Jack wasn't sure but he might have fallen asleep momentarily where he lay, or it might have been that the Beta gave a particularly pained sound and the Alpha pulled on them all strongly to support Seth, strong enough that Jack passed out as what was left of his strength was taken away. Either way, he didn't hear the footsteps of the ones approaching him. Instead Jack simply opened his eyes to see the former Alpha and Sam's mate.

The former Alpha looked like he was about to say something, then Sam shut his lips together and hunkered down in front of Jack. Sam was silent for a while, long enough for Jack to think that Sam's imprint's eyes were the same dark beautiful eyes of a woman he had once loved, and woman had stolen his heart away, and then Sam grunted. "I know you think you fucked up, Jack," Sam said quietly, sounding exhausted. "But you didn't. Collin fucked up and Seth fucked up, and we all fucked up. You were the only one besides Jake that did what you were supposed to do. You don't have to stay out here like this."

Jack gave Sam a small smile, tried to show his appreciation for the kind words by softening his body posture. "I was hoping that the cold would numb my back, Packmate," Jack murmured, and Emily settled down in the snow next to him. "But thank you."

"Jack?" Emily said his name, touching his shoulder with a light fingertip. "Can I look at your back? Nessie said you became worse on the walk over here. Do you mind if I check?"

The thought of being poked and prodded more tonight was discouraging, but it was nice that his Packmate was touching him, that she seemed comfortable with her hand against his arm. If she wanted to see his back, then he would let her, and as a sheet of dark hair fell across his shoulder, Jack closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment to remember softer times, better days. Then Jack sat up and tried not to grimace too much as Emily carefully stripped his shirt away. It stuck to his back and made him grunt once as she worked it loose and over his head, and then Emily gave a small gasp of dismay.

"I can't…" Emily shook her head, looking at the younger wolf. "Sam, I don't understand. Collin just wouldn't do this. _Why_ _would Collin do this_?"

The previous Alpha frowned, unconsciously wrapping a hand over the base of Jack's neck as the ancient wolf kept himself bent over under their eyes. "Jack? Do you understand what happened any better than we do?"

Jack relaxed under his Packmate's hand and tried to think back. Deliberately prying into the past brought the voices, voices that had been quieted by Renesmee's palm against his skin for so much of the day. "He is young," Jack finally said. "He is young and his wolf spirit is strong. His wolf spirit had taken the hunt personally, was driving him to take down their prey." He paused, saw the worried look in Sam's eyes, read the words in Sam's posture that the other wolf wasn't willing to say. "Do not worry, Packmate. It isn't because the man and the wolf are fighting for control. He is healthy, it is just that the two spirits are maturing at unequal rates. The pup will even out soon enough as pups always do. It is simply…growing pains."

The relief in Sam's face was evident, even as inside the house Collin made a noise in his throat that echoed that relief.

"That's…good to know," Sam decided, his voice gruff to cover his emotions. "With everything else, it was more than we knew how to deal with. Thank you, Jack. I know it'd hard for you to answer that sort of thing."

It was, but it was growing a little easier, or maybe he was simply growing more used to facing his demons these days.

"We have ice cubes inside, Jack," Emily said, still peering at his wounds. "Are you sure you don't want to come in with us?"

His eyes flickered to the house, and Sam nodded in understanding. "You don't want her to see you this weak," Sam acknowledged, and then the younger wolf gave Jack's neck a squeeze. "When she falls asleep, we'll come get you. Thank you for bringing her, by the way. Every last one of us will only help more. Leave the shirt off him, Em. It'll heal faster out in the open."

Emily sighed, and then leaned over, giving Jack a kiss on the cheek before rising to her feet. Jack smiled slightly at that and Sam waited for her to go inside before he released Jack's neck. Both understood that it had been important, Sam's ability to control Jack if Emily had accidentally hurt him and caused an inadvertent reaction. Sam didn't apologize, but he did settle down in the snow next to the ancient wolf. The previous Alpha was a quiet man, quieter when things were going badly, and so neither one of them spoke as they sat in the snow, a more bundled up Emily every once in a while coming out with a fresh bag of ice to hold piece by piece against Jack's burning flesh. The first bag, Sam made sure to keep his hand on Jack's neck, but by the second, Emily shooed Sam away.

By the time his imprint finally fell asleep, having watched her way through the Little Mermaid and half of Beauty and the Beast, some of the shallower wounds (still deep in themselves) had knitted back together. The sickness in his stomach was easing, possibly from the swelling in his back going down, so Jack clumsily climbed to his feet.

His imprint was a child and had kept her eyes averted from his wounds while in wolf form, but he had seen the look in her eyes when he had approached her as a man, his scars enough to make her shy away in fear. As he slipped back into the house, padding at Sam and Emily's heels, Jack's eyes immediately tracked to his tiny sleeping imprint, the child curled up on the couch. It was good that she was spared from seeing any more this night.

Jack ignored his Pack and went to her, settled himself on the carpet near her couch. He was still a few feet away from her, but that was the rules that her parents had insisted upon, and just because he wasn't being watched by them right now didn't mean that the rules no longer applied. Feeling eyes on him, Jack bowed his head, kept his gaze submissive. He truly didn't want to cause any more trouble. The she-wolf, however, had no problem with that.

"You can't even fucking look at him, can you Collin?" Leah snorted derisively, her words sharp and acidic. Her pain was making her lash out, and because of her affection for Jack, the pup was an easy target.

"Back _off_, Leah," Paul growled, sounding tired. "_Enough_, okay? We're all exhausted, just lay off for a few minutes."

"You gonna wipe his ass while you're at it, Paul?" Leah shot back, and Jack could hear her pacing about the room, could hear her teeth grinding together. "What, because he's your fucking favorite, he can do whatever the hell he wants to?"

"Lee-lee, please," Emily pleaded softly from where she had settled near Jared. "No more tonight. This isn't anyone's fault. Please."

But it was very clear that there wasn't a single wolf there who didn't feel the blame on their shoulders. Even Jared, who stared at the wall and whispered harshly, "Isn't it? If I had just _been_ here…" The wolf's voice cracked, and it was obvious that the numbness was shifting into deep intense pain, pain that had Brady on his feet and between Jared and them, snarling.

"You know, Leah, since it was _you_ on patrol, maybe should keep your damn mouth shut!" Brady growled, his hands shaking. "Maybe if you and Sam could actually focus on shit instead of making fucking goo goo eyes at each other-"

"Brady!" Jared snapped, but it was too late, the damage was already done. Emily looked as if someone had slapped her in the face, although she didn't seem excessively surprised. Sam had grown white with rage, but Leah just seemed…ashamed. Angry and ashamed. With a snarl, Paul was on his feet, a mottled-eyed and exhausted Embry doing the same.

Jack was amazed that his imprint was still asleep, but the child had always slept deeply, according to their Alpha. She slept through the snarling and through Sue breaking a dish in the sink, a dish the elder had washed over and over again that night. She slept through Paul roaring at them to shut up and sit down, this wasn't helping Seth, it wasn't helping anyone. Jack didn't blame them, he understood their hurt and their fear, understood that their Alpha was stripping them of their strength just as Jake was stripping Jack himself. They were too young to shoulder these burdens without even understanding themselves, what they were and what they need to be for their Alpha.

They were all…they were all too young. Much too young.

Renesmee slept through Jack picking her up, through Collin's horrified choking noise as the pup finally saw the expanse of Jack's back, through Jack carrying her to the bedroom furthest from the living room. He laid her down on what he assumed was Sue's bed and ignored the many quilts and comforters stacked on the side of the room. Instead he took down the hand-woven dog hair blanket, the kind that he had once sat and watched a beautiful woman with fiery eyes weave with clever fingertips, and Jack settled the blanket over his sleeping imprint. The ancient wolf spoke a soft request to the spirits and the ancestors to guide her dreams, and then he silently padded out, making sure to shut the door behind him.

His Pack were still fighting, although not as loudly as before, when Jack came back to the living room. With sad eyes he watched them, watched them circle round and round, watched them attack each other verbally, his Pack not even understanding why they were going for each other's throats. Finally he stepped in between them.

"_You are Tlokwali_," Jack suddenly said, the room falling quiet at his voice. "You are _all_ Tlokwali, when the rest of us are not, and can never be again."

Every eyes turned to him, and it made him want to cringe from the focus of their attention, but he steeled himself and continued on, his voice softer, almost apologetic. "It is not my place to speak to or to guide those who are still Tlokwali, but if it was, I would say this: This is not the first night that we have failed to protect our people. This will not be the last night we will fail to protect our people. But for those who are Tlokwali, who are of the wolf, they must continue their hunt because that is what they do. It is _who_ they are. The ones you hurt with your words are the ones that will run at your heels when the enemy comes again. You are only hurting yourselves, Packmates, when you hurt each other."

Silence, but they were all listening, all looking at him for…for something. Anything. Even Paul was watching him, waiting for that elusive something they needed.

_Hope_, T'sikáti whispered into Jack's mind. They look to you for _hope_, old friend.

Beneath the weight of their need, Jack bowed his head, searched for anything he could say to give them that hope they needed. It was too late, though, because it was then that the Cold One stepped out of Seth's bedroom, shutting the door behind him and leaning against it wearily.

"I'm sorry," Carlisle said quietly, his voice that of a doctor who was delivering bad news. "I've done all that I can do. The infection spread into his bloodstream, and his body is rejecting the antibiotics I gave him. He…he may have a couple more hours, maybe less. To be honest, I don't know how he's hung on this long." There was nothing more for him to say, so Carlisle gave them all a sad, sympathetic look and slipped down the hallway to where his granddaughter slept. Their last hope had been taken away.

It was Sue that broke the awful silence, the woman letting out a soft noise that grew into a keening wail as Sue's knees buckled. Quil had seen it coming and the broad shouldered wolf managed to catch her before she fell. "It's okay, it's okay, Sue," Quil whispered, tears in his own eyes as he pulled the sobbing woman into his arms. "Hold onto me...Atta girl."

Leah didn't crumple, didn't do anything but stand there in a state of shock. "Leah," Embry whispered, stepping up to her, but Leah pushed at Embry's shoulder when he tried to hug her. When he tried again, she punched him, as hard as she could across the face. Embry could have dodged it, but he took the hit, pulled on her wrist when she over extended herself, and hauled her into his chest.

"Go away," Leah hissed, trying to break free, but Embry was stronger than she was and he wasn't letting go. "Get the fuck _off_ me Embry, go away!" Leah shrieked, but then she had her arms around his neck, clinging to him. "Go away, go away, _go away_…" she cried, shaking her head in disbelief, her grief etched across her beautiful face as her shoulders began to shake in hard, silently sobs.

Jack was pretty sure that she wasn't speaking to Embry anymore, and his heart hurt for her. Brady was standing, looking stunned, and in the corner Collin had his face buried in his hand, crying quietly as Cassie held him, the small imprint looking torn between comforting Collin and moving to stand with Paul. Paul, their Qa'al, who would be the new Beta if Seth died, was staring at his Pack, his expression sick and his face pale. Paul, who Jake must be pulling on the most of all.

It was a terrifying thought for Jack, what he was about to do, but wordlessly he turned his back on his Pack and slipped into Seth's bedroom, making sure to close the door behind him. There was one last thing they could try, one more way their Beta might be saved.

The Beta was lying on his bed, nearly as white as the sheets beneath him had once been before it had become bloodstained. A blanket had been pulled up to his waist, but the rest of his torso lay uncovered. Jack had seen the damage that Cold One's could do, had seen beloved Packmates torn limb from limb by them, but that never made it any easier. The smell of encroaching death filled Jack's nostrils, and the ancient wolf's eyes slid past Seth to the Alpha. Jake was seated on the far side of the bed, his imprint unconscious against his chest as the Alpha leaned against the wall. Jake had one arm braced around his imprint and the other resting up on the bed, his hand wrapped around Seth's elbow.

Tears slid openly down the Alpha's face.

"I'm losing him," Jake whispered to Jack, the Alpha's voice ragged. "I've taken everything from everyone, even her, and it's still not enough. I don't know what else to do."

Jack nodded, and then the ancient wolf locked the door behind him, flipping off the lights. It was still another hour or two until sunrise, and the moon was shining through the bedroom window, casting its pale gleam across the young wolf on the bed. There was no fire, no grasses for him to smoke to ease his way into this task, no colors to paint across his or his Beta's skin. There were only the voices in his head, whispering that they were going to take him this time if he tried to enter their world, that this time there was no escape.

The ancient wolf settled cross-legged on the bed next to Seth, looked at the young wolf's features. Smiling slightly because of who still lived on in this wolf's jawline, in the shape of his eyes, Jack dipped his head and raised his wrist to his mouth. When he bit down, the smell of blood filled his nostrils, and on the floor the Alpha made a noise of disbelief.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Jake asked harshly, but Jack didn't answer. It had been a long time since he had drawn these symbols, wished he could safely reposition his dying Packmate in a way that would pay homage to the earth and the sun, the sky and the water. Carefully, Jack pressed his thumb to his bleeding wrist, traced patterns across the Beta's brow and jaw that were hazy in Jack's head, so long since forgotten. Just as carefully, more lines were drawn on Jack's own face, in honor and respect for those that gave them life, those that took it away, those who could grant healing if the one requesting the healing did so in the proper ways. Taking a deep, Jack began to pray, his voice a low chant that filled the room.

There were no prayers surrounding him this time, no wolf spirit meshing powerfully with his own to help guide him on his journey. There was only his own voice, and his Alpha's harsh breathing, and his Beta's weakly beating heart. One hand resting on Seth's breast and one beating a slow steady rhythm against Jack's hip, the ancient wolf forced himself to face those that haunted him, that hunted him, that never _ever_ left him alone.

The murmuring rose immediately, drowning out Jack's steadily spoken words with their own whispering voices.

_Murderer_...yes, but Jack wished to heal a beloved son of their tribe, a son that their enemy had tried to kill.

_Betrayer_…yes, Jack knew, but the one that lay dying had never turned on his own, had never betrayed.

_Traitor_…yes, a traitor to everyone but his own heart, a heart that had been broken for a very long time. A heart that wished to save that which the spirits had made Tlokwali. The blood and flesh of flesh and blood that had never been a traitor. A lineage that was so important, that it could not be allowed to be broken. Would they help Jack save him?

They would not. They would not, but their own voices would rise again, trying to force his words from his lips, and Jack prayed harder, prayed louder, his fingertips pressing into his Beta's ruined chest. Jack's fist beat against his hip as he chanted his supplications, requesting their guidance, their healing, pleading for their anger to be taken out on him and not on a beloved member of the tribe. The spirits never had liked being told what to do, were demanding at their kindest, and now at their angriest they buffeted Jack mercilessly. The ancient wolf shuddered under the weight of that anger, prayed faster, prayed that they give Seth strength that only they had the power to give.

And then, because it became clearer and clearer that the spirits would not bend, would not help without Jack letting them have his all, the ancient wolf changed his prayers. This time he prayed that the spirits help Seth, that they give the young wolf healing, and in turn, Jack offered that which he had not offered in a very long time. He offered the spirits himself, inviting them to sink into him, to punish him at will.

Never had it happened so fast, never had he been pulled into the spirit world so very fast. The world around him grew cloudy, thicker, but so much more so than ever before. There were no other voices, no help from elders or Tlokwali to push him through this place, and Jack felt the spirit world around him begin to crush him. They would not help Jack. If another had asked perhaps they would have relented, but they would give no more help to one such as him. But even as they pressed upon him, Jack could see through the spirits' eyes, could no longer see the bodies in the room, but the colors of spirits that lay there instead. His Alpha, Tlokwali, the perfect balance of black and white spirits twisting together, smooth and sleek and effortless. The Beta, only slightly less perfect, but fading in color, softening even as he watched. Himself, two spirits still twisted together, but ragged and torn on every side, chewed upon from every angle. And then one other, one that flickered, one that…

When Jack realized what his Pack didn't know, what perhaps even his Alpha didn't know, he jerked within the spirits' hold, fighting to free himself. He hadn't realized that he wasn't breathing, that within their grasp that the spirits were pressing down too hard, that he was strangling in their world. Somewhere deep inside he felt his wolf spirit start to fight their hold, try to protect them because they were dying, but they couldn't die yet because the Alpha may not know…the Alpha _had_ to know…

Screaming voices in his head, beating at him from every direction, tearing and clawing and shredding his mind apart. They would take him this time, take him and break him all apart…

It was the Third that broke down the door, Jake's yelling of Jack's name bringing the Pack in to try and help him, and it was his imprint that saved his mind, her frightened grab for him resulting in her palms against his skin, the strength of her childlike thoughts scattering the voices like leaves in the wind. But it was Seth, whose hand had wrapped around Jack's wrist, that freed him from the spirit world's grasp. As the spirit world blended back into a bedroom with Spiderman blankets, kind brown eyes gazed up at him, before the Beta's eyes rolled up into his head.

The world tilted, someone was catching Jack as he slumped, but as Jack gasped out his first choking breath, it was his Alpha that he found.

"Alpha! She's Tlokwali," he gasped painfully, the world spinning. "She's enough…she'll be enough."

And then the darkness came.

* * *

A sharp stinging smell played across her nostrils, and with a sniff, Samantha came awake.

The early morning sun was shining through the window, falling across Samantha's face and pulling her more fully into wakefulness. Mumbling at the brightness, Samantha turned in Embry's arms…no. No, she was in _someone's_ arms, but it wasn't Embry's. As her eyes fluttered open, the first thing she saw was a carpeted floor, one that had too many dirty clothes piled on it. Samantha had spent enough days hanging out in this room and getting her ponytail pulled that she knew exactly where she was. Seth's room. Which would make this Seth's floor, and the mattress at eyelevel would be Seth's mattress.

There was a rock wall behind her, so hard it was almost uncomfortable. Almost.

Samantha was used to strong arms wrapping around her while she slept, but these arms weren't just strong. They were massive, the muscles tight and toned but huge with sheer bulk. They made her feel tiny, and Samantha didn't like feeling tiny. She didn't like feeling weak or helpless, but more than that, she didn't like the instant pounding in her head that accompanied the mere idea of trying to move. Her eyes flickered around, taking in a bent knee to her left, almost at shoulder level with her, and another leg stretched out on her right side, the bare foot stuffed under Seth's bed. It was a brave foot to do that. There were frightening things under Seth's bed.

_Seth_.

Just thinking about him made her remember, and what she remembered was bad. Samantha started to stagger to her feet, at least that was the idea, but it didn't even start to happen. Those arms held her still, so still that the most she did was move her head. And that hurt, so bad.

"You don't want to see," a deep voice rumbled behind her, sounding far more tired that she had ever heard him. "He's alive, but trust me…you don't want to see."

"I already saw, Jacob Black," Samantha heard herself whisper, "Remember? I saw everything."

The wall behind her shifted, and she realized that her head had been pillowed against the place where the Alpha's arm met his ribcage. Now that that it was somewhere in the middle of his chest, the rock wall softened. Slightly. But not by very much.

"The wound got infected, Samantha," Jake said quietly, his voice filled with lingering anger. The effect was similar to a muted roll of thunder, and Samantha wondered if she should be scared when his arms tightened around her ever so slightly. "Carlisle stitched him up, but the infection was killing him...Carlisle had to open him back up again and keep draining the wound. He's only partially healed and the rest of it…trust me, you don't want to see."

Samantha didn't like to be told what to do, but in this case she was alright with it. She had seen so much already, that it was enough to have someone tell her no. Even now, she could smell Seth's pain and hurt in the air. They were all alone in the room, her and Jake and Seth. Samantha didn't even pretend to know why.

"Will he be okay?" she asked, staring straight ahead at a crumbled up pair of Spiderman boxer shorts. "Is Embry okay? Jake? What happened, and why did I pass out? Jake, what's _happening_?" The questions started rolling off of her tongue but Jake didn't answer. He did exhale tiredly and then to Samantha's shock, he stuck his nose in her hair.

It was only for a moment, but when he pulled away, Jake's voice had taken that tone of authority that always made her go on edge, even though she could tell he was trying to be easy on her.

"Samantha?" Jake said gently. "We need to talk." Dread filled her, and because the imprint bond was as open as it had ever been, Jake felt it too. He made a soft hushing sound in his throat, shifting her in his arms. "It's not Embry. It's Seth, and it's Shane and Casey. The leech…" Jake trailed off, and Samantha's stomach twisted when he cleared his throat and finished his sentence. "It killed them on the beach."

"Oh _no_…" Samantha whimpered, bowing her head. _Shane and Casey_. Jared's brother, and her father's girlfriend. This was too much, this cost was too high.

"Samantha, Seth is dying," Jake whispered, and she had to give Jake credit that he was able to say the words without his voice breaking. "I've taken all I can from myself, from the Pack, even from you. Especially from you, it's why you've been out since yesterday. But Carlisle says Seth's fading, that it's only a matter of time. Even Jack tried to heal him."

"Jack?" Samantha asked, trying to process all of this. "What could Jack do?"

Jake was silent for a moment, and then exhaled. "The oldest ways of our people have more strength in them then you would think, Samantha. He tried, and it didn't help, but Jack reaffirmed something that I've suspected since Calgary. That's what we need to talk about."

Samantha didn't know what to say, but right now was not the time for that. What could Calgary possibly have to do with what was happening now, what their Pack faced? "I don't understand," she finally whispered. "What are you trying to say?"

"Samantha…hell, I don't know how to say this," Jake said, rubbing his face tiredly. "Samantha, when you and Brady were in Calgary, down in those caves, I think that something happened to you. Something that you don't remember. I think that when they were hurting you that they pushed you too far. I think that you phased. And when you saw Seth yesterday, I think the shock of it almost made you phase again. The others, they thought you shaking so bad was from shock, but I'm tied so tightly to you…I think you almost phased, Samantha."

There was silence, and then as his words sank in, Samantha was once again trying to fight to her feet, but Jake's arms kept her in place just as easily as they had the first time. "That's _bullshit_, Jake," Samantha snarled, hurt that he would say this to her after all that had happened. "I don't know why you're choosing now to fuck with me, but it's a shitty time to do it. Brady-"

"Brady remembers you getting hurt in ways that we should've seen when you came out of the caves," Jake continued, sounding sad. "He remembers a dead Calgary wolf but he didn't kill it. And he remembers things that you don't remember. I've watched you, honey, and I see it in the way you move, the way you act around Embry, the way you act around me. Hell, you even smell different. But the thing is, I don't think you were ever supposed to phase. If you were, you should've phased back when you and Claire were attacked, or soon after."

No. No no _no_. No, he was wrong. He had to be wrong. As inwardly she panicked and screamed that he was wrong, outwardly she sat so very still and said quietly, "That doesn't make sense, Jake. If I phased once, I would have phased again. I would have known and it would have happened again…right?"

_Right_? This couldn't be true.

"I don't know what happened down there, Samantha," Jake admitted, "But I think you were pushed to the breaking point, and it triggered the phase. I think that since you haven't been pushed like that since, at least until yesterday, that the change was coming on slowly. So slowly that I wasn't sure if it was actually happening at all. I think that if given the right scenario, keeping you out of stressful situations and making sure you always feel safe and that you don't have to protect yourself…I think it's possible it won't happen again. I think that maybe you can go through life the way you are now, if you keep calm, if you have ways of keeping yourself contained. Other ways to get rid of anger and stress."

"You think the martial arts kept me from phasing," Samantha said dully, her words falling flat on her own ears.

"I think that it's possible," the Alpha said, exhaling. "I don't know, Samantha, I'm not exactly an expert at this. It's why I gave you that fang, why I was going to send Seth with you to college. I needed you to always feel safe, to help you keep it contained. If you felt you had other ways of defending yourself, I thought you wouldn't subconsciously rely on the wolf. I wasn't going to upset you by telling you unless it became clear that I had no choice, and it's been seven months, Samantha. I think it's very possible that you can have what we didn't…a life without this."

The girl stared at a pair of boxers, wished that Seth had been given a life without this, and then she snarled deep in her throat. "You wanted me to have this, Jacob Black. _Remember_? Remember that you tried to force this on me? So why try to keep it from happening these last months? _Why_, Jake?"

He didn't answer that, and she felt guilt and stress slide between them through the imprint bond. Jake's arm tightened again as he whispered, "After that day, when it didn't work, and then after Calgary, I thought you had lost enough. I don't want you to have to lose anything more, Samantha. You're my imprint and since the day you came here, your life has been made worse because of us. I just wanted…I wanted you to have better than that for once. But don't think that for a moment I've ever forgotten what's happened, the choices that have been made when it's come to you."

Part of her wanted to scream at him, but she felt as if someone had taken all of her strength, and it was easier to lean against Jake, to let the imprint curl around her and steady her instead of rage. "Why tell me now?" she finally asked. "What's changed that you need to tell…me…now…"

Samantha trailed off, because she knew what had changed. Seth. Jake had said he had taken everything his Pack had to give. "You're not strong enough to keep him alive," Samantha said numbly.

"No."

Words. Words she didn't want to say, but that came to her tongue. "But if you had another she-wolf, you would be." It wasn't a question, but Jake had the heart to treat it that way.

The Alpha closed his eyes, and he exhaled heavily. "With you, I have a better chance at keeping Seth alive, but it still may not be enough. Jack thinks it would be, but I'm not so sure. And Seth could live without you, maybe. I don't know, Samantha. It would help his odds, but the odds are so far stacked against him…I just don't know."

Bitterly Samantha stared at the carpet, smelling that sharp scent again. "Then why not just force it, Jake? Why tell me in the first place?"

Jake was quiet, so quiet that all she could hear was Seth's unsteady breathing up on the bed. Finally Jake whispered, "All this time, I've always put the Pack first, put them in front of you. I didn't want to imprint, thought that if I treated you as of equal importance as them but no better, that it would be okay. You didn't want this either. But this time…" he trailed off, sounding deeply wounded, but then his voice steadied. "This time I'm not going to ask this of you. I'm not going to hide it from you, but I'm not going to let anyone try to influence your decision. And I'm not going to let anyone treat you badly no matter what you decide, no matter what the outcome of this decision. You've paid your dues in this Pack, Samantha."

"You're telling me it's okay to let Seth die to make myself happier?" Samantha snarled, furious at this, furious that he acted as if he had left her a choice. "Do you actually think that I'll be able to live with myself if he dies and I do _nothing_?"

Jakes arms softened his mouth near her ear as he whispered softly. "Honey? He's probably going to die anyways."

Those words hurt. God, did they _hurt_.

Samantha hadn't realized that she'd made a hurt noise until Jake tightened his arms around her, held her a little more securely. "I'm done taking your options away from you," Jake whispered. "I don't need a lover, Samantha, but you're my imprint. I need us to be on the same side, and I need us to be equals. I need to give you this choice, not try to make it for you again. Whatever you decide the Pack will stand behind, and if you decide to do this, it'll just be me and you. No more Packs surrounding you. I'll do it alone, I'll make sure you phase. And if you don't, Embry's having a pretty bad day. He blames himself for this, and he could probably use you right now."

And with that, Jake let her go. Samantha pulled away from Jake immediately, her head swimming as she staggered to her feet. _No_. No, she didn't want to phase. She _hated_ this life. She hated what it had done to Embry, to herself, to Brady. She hated—

As her eyes instinctively swept over Seth, suddenly she understood why Jake wouldn't let her see him. This was worse, even after the woods, this was worse. There was a smudge of blood on his cheek, where someone had failed to scrub his face clean, and Samantha found herself moving shaky hands to that place. Seth. Sweet Seth, who had always watched out for her. Who had always tugged her hair, because every lonely, isolated girl needed someone who cared enough to tug their hair.

Tears welling in her eyes, Samantha jerked her hand back and fled. She was planning on running, running to Embry, or maybe running right out of that door, so she didn't have to think about this. She didn't want this, didn't want the memories that Jake's words were starting to resurface in her brain, of cruel wolves that had hurt her, of blood across her tongue, of someone else that she had needed to save.

She was planning on running, but Samantha only made it as far as the door. The Pack in front of her stopped her dead in her tracks.

They were all there, every single one of them, with the exception of Claire. Every single person in the Pack was sitting in the living room, and as Samantha stood in the doorway, they all looked at her. They _knew_. They knew what she was, or at least they knew what she had the potential to be. They knew what that meant, knew that of all of them, she was the only one who had the faintest bit of a choice in the matter. Samantha could see it in their eyes, the ones that didn't drop their gazes, and it made her insides twist in so many ways.

Poor Leah was sitting wedged in between Emily and Sam, her head on Emily's shoulder and her hand holding Sam's so very tightly, but the look in her eyes…Leah had never wanted this. Leah had never wanted this for any of them, but she loved Seth so damn much. What the hell was Leah supposed to say?

"He's strong," the she-wolf finally whispered, her voice cracking on the words. "You don't have to do this, he still could…" Leah swallowed her own words, and Samantha knew that Leah didn't believe what she was saying. But the older girl was trying to give Samantha something that Leah had never been given, an out.

Brady wouldn't look at her, but he was pressed against the side of an utterly devastated looking Jared, Jared who was holding onto a silently crying Kim. Kim, who despite her tears was rubbing Jared's arm, whispering softly that everything would be okay. Paul, who was the only wolf standing, the only one able to keep his feet under this tragedy, his imprint looking pale and drawn but still on her feet and at his side. Her little arm was wrapped around Paul's waist, as if she thought by sheer strength alone she could support him, keep him standing strong. Collin, who had positioned himself alone in the corner, miserable and shaking. Jack who was pale and drawn and crouched on his heels slightly behind a bronze haired child on Harry's old easy chair. Renesmee, who was looking at Samantha sadly, tears welling up in the child's eyes. Quil, who for all their fighting was sitting with Embry on the couch, his hand gripping Embry's shoulder. Embry, who had his face buried in his hands, his eyes liquid black and his hands shaking.

_Embry_.

They looked so…broken. As torn as the Beta in the bedroom behind her. It was as if someone had reached into their own chests and ripped them open, and Samantha closed her eyes against their pain. They had terrorized her to try and protect Embry, they had thrown down their lives to try to protect Jake. They had put themselves between every human they knew and the dangers that could hurt them, hurt them like Seth had been hurt, and they would do it again and again and again…They were her Pack. Hers. Hers and broken. Hers and hurting. Hers and scared.

That scent that she had smelled before when she woke up, that sharp stinging smell, that was fear. She hadn't known then, but her instincts told her what it was now. Or maybe it was seeing their eyes, all of their eyes turned towards her. Waiting. Waiting to know what was going to happen to them. Was that what it was like for Jake? Was this what he faced every day? What Seth had faced every day that Jake had been gone? It pressed on her, the weight on their shoulders somehow carrying over to her own, and as the young wolf on the bed behind her groaned feverishly, Samantha bit her lip to stifle her own noise of pain. Samantha didn't want this, she never wanted any of this. She wanted her mother to be proud of her, and she wanted college, and she wanted a normal, healthy life.

Unfortunately Samantha wanted Seth more.

Sue was sobbing in the kitchen. Sue was sobbing in the kitchen, and Leah made a noise of hurt when Samantha closed her eyes, gripped the doorframe for balance. Leah already knew. Apparently so did Jake because there was the softest sound of movement behind her, and she could feel the Alpha standing so close that his ribcage brushed her shoulder blades.

"Paul," Samantha said quietly, and at her call the Third stepped forward. Massive, dangerous, the most dominant wolf left. She and Paul had always had an…interesting relationship, but Paul was strong. She would need that strength because Embry was watching her intently, waiting for her next words. "Paul, keep Embry here until we get back," she said flatly. "Come on, Jake, let's get this shit over with."

"_Sims_," Embry started to say, surging to his feet, but Paul had already stepped in front of him and grabbed Embry by the shoulder, obeying her order. Samantha would have been more shocked at that if she wasn't so focused on this, focused on what she had to do. As she left the house, Jacob Black stalking her footsteps, Samantha ignored the panicked calls of the man that loved her, the one that was yelling for her to come back because she needed to _know_ what she was doing. She ignored Embry because she already knew what she was doing.

This time Samantha Carter was going to _make_ _sure_ she phased.


	14. Chapter 12

**A/N** Thanks as always to my reviewers: _t(dot)bairdy, Britt01, shelbron, dirtychicken, KerryH, Aleena Kiwiana, Hannah Writes R, MadToTheBone1, c4wot, SARAH DB, moani-sama, lilred-07, The all mighty and powerfulM, Manna1, scrapalicious, Jessica1018, lionandthelamblove7, laurazuleta18, dancelikeyoujustdontcare, eskimogirl58, WorldsAngel, cylobaby, hilja, 82c10akaLynn, iluvjasp, Buffyk0604, Alpha Mingan, BiteMeLoveMe, cukijati, MargotTenser, _and_ TheNotoriousLIP_. And an extra thanks to the awesome _hilja_, who has been with TIC from the very beginning. *glomps* I snuck something in here for you that I hope makes you smile, Wihl. ;)

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Twelve

_**Atlantic Ocean, 1533 AD**_

_The three-masted merchant ship cut through the cresting waves, its white canvas sails snapping in the wind. _

_They said that the New World was full of riches just ripe for the taking, but from where Ricardo de Vaena was sitting, all he could see was more water. De Vaena was supposed to have been at a ball right now, but instead he was in the middle of the ocean, speaking to a rat. Not the best of conversationalists, true, but unlike some others that he knew, the rat at least had the courtesy to give him the attention that he needed. After all, de Vaena had been having a very bad few years, and the other vampire on the vessel was to blame._

_The worst part was that it would have been so magnificent in England right now. The country was still at odds over the King's Great Matter, but that matter had finally been decided and Henry Tudor of England was finally marrying Anne Boleyn, at least publically this time. There would be feasting and dancing and music like the palace had never seen, and as the only vampire of the King, de Vaena should have been given first rights to the food and the wine and the women that came with it. Instead he was headed off to sea with the most unfortunate of companions, with nary a King to speak to or to kill for again._

_With a sigh of regret, de Vaena supposed that it was better this way. Queen Catherine had been stripped of her crown, a crown that now graced the head of a dangerously intelligent woman, and the court's tolerance of those with Spanish blood had waned as Anne's influence over them had spread. Of course de Vaena was morally offended for his true and rightful Queen, Catherine, but the Spaniard had always been able to appreciate the beauty of ambition, especially when ambition hunted a king in a low cut dress, when ambition heaved its bosom at the right times and managed to land a throne because of it. _

_The rat had no bosom to heave, but it did have enough ambition to stay and eat the small bits of salt pork that de Vaena offered as he sat aboard his own floating throne and bemoaned the loss of his good name, his wealth, and his prestige. Oh, so went the spoils of life when one least expected it._

_"You know, a single mistake was all I made," de Vaena told the rat sadly, his pale skin sparkling in the sunlight as he sprawled on a wooden barrel, his feet kicked up on the ship's railing. "Just one mistake and it all fell away. I don't suppose they have servants and chambermaids in the wild forests of the Americas, do they?"_

_If the rat knew, it wasn't saying, but de Vaena was pretty sure that it was just trying to spare him from the pain of disappointment. Rats were often kind that way. _

_"Ahh well, we shall get by as we get by," de Vaena shrugged, as if it was of no matter, and he tossed the rat another piece of salt pork, staring out at the water surrounding them. _

_The sea was fair today, a far better state of affairs than the last several weeks had given them. A vampire was not inclined to grow sea-sick, but there was only so much buffeting about one could take, and the few meals they had left were growing sicker by the day. De Vaena's companion had barely waited until they had pushed off to sea and were out of the harbor before making short work of the ship's crew, living provisions that were supposed to have lasted them both months. Only three meals were left, and part of a fourth, so de Vaena had put himself in charge of the galley from now on, conserving their food and draining it in ways that wouldn't kill it. _

_One such meal was bound and gagged at de Vaena's side, but de Vaena preferred the rat as company. After all, the sailor was not much to talk to, and he was more inclined to try and throw himself overboard than to be the respectfully attentive human that de Vaena would have preferred him to be. _

_Behind them, the captain and the charter of the vessel sat huddled together, too horrified at this point to do anything but stare at the vampires that had come upon their ship, not actually the inquisitive (and dare de Vaena say it, the devilishly _handsome)_ adventurers that the captain had believed. Their attention was particularly drawn to Neel, where the younger vampire sat playing with his kill. De Vaena had grown tired of the man's screams days ago, but it was at least another month at sea before they reached the New World, and at least it was keeping Neel occupied. _

_If de Vaena had learned anything the last five years, it was that keeping Neel occupied made his own existence much _much_ easier._

_The rat watched de Vaena pick off the next morsel of salt pork, its beady eyes tracking his fingers. "Let me ask you something, my dear friend," de Vaena said, sighing disconsolately. "Let us pretend that you are I, or at least, that you are the 'I' that I was five years ago. And you are living the finest life, pretending to fall asleep in the arms of the finest women, and when they are sleeping, you are sipping from them as if they are the finest wines to be the most appreciative of."_

_The rat paused in its chewing momentarily to pretend as asked and de Vaena nodded in appreciation. "Thank you, your human friend here wouldn't pretend at all. Now then, let us suppose that you meet someone _new_. Someone who is…how shall I put this delicately? Someone who insists on being _aggressively_ insensitive to the needs of his maker. Someone who is lurid in his attempts to blur the line between graphically artistic self-expression and the complete macabre." De Vaena lowered his voice to a stage whisper and handed the rat his next morsel. "I think it's possible that we have fallen into ranks with a madman."_

_On his side of the ship, the side that de Vaena had banished his creation to, Neel raised blood red eyes and smirked. "You say that I am mad, old man, but you're the one who's talking to vermin." _

_"Neel, since I met you, I have made a _mastery_ of speaking to vermin," de Vaena countered lightly, his smile not touching his eyes as the Spaniard pulled his hat lower across his face. It was the latest of fashions, a wonderful thing of dark felt and contrasting stitching, not that anyone had been kind enough to notice such. _

_"I have been thinking that I'm going to try and kill you," de Vaena mentioned, as if speaking of the weather. Neel's head snapped up and he glared at de Vaena, making the vampire chuckle. "Now now, don't look at me like that. I'll probably change my mind."_

_The younger vampire rose to his feet, carrying part of his meal with him as he stood on the invisible line that separated the two vampires on the ship. Neel licked his lips and smirked. "You can't go through with it and you know it," Neel decided, lapping messily at his food before licking his fingers clean. "And it's not my fault the Volturi turned your King on you. You were lazy and indulgent and I was off amusing my own self until you stopped being bored of me."_

_"I have an entire country that wants to burn me at the stake for devilry because of you," de Vaena murmured ruefully, absently patting the shoulder of the sailor next to him. "There are worse reasons for wanting to kill a man, don't you think?"_

_Neel snorted and wiped his mouth, saying, "What does it matter? No human could catch you, and it's not as if the Volturi could actually hold you in place and still burn you at the stake. I don't know why you care, Ricardo, England is dull anyways."_

_"I have it on the best authority that Sulpicia is trying to figure out a way," de Vaena murmured placidly, tipping up his hat and giving Neel a real smile this time. "Something about tying us together face to face, maker and creation, so that we can watch each other scream as we burn."_

_The younger vampire thought about that and then nodded in approval. "I like her," Neel decided, spitting out his meal's golden tooth as he continued to gnaw his lunch fare. The meal's screams had become grating and de Vaena shook his head in annoyance. _

_"A beast can never truly appreciate a lady," de Vaena decided, growing sickened from watching Neel eat and turning his eyes away. _

_Even after years as Sulpicia's plaything, indulging in every kind of vulgarity that they had been able to imagine, de Vaena had still never seen as much death by his own kind as he'd seen in the last five years. Neel killed too much, killed too many, and killed too indiscriminately. Even de Vaena couldn't control him, at least, not by much, and it was aggravating. Neel had run amuck through England the last five years, and de Vaena had let him do it, hoping that the Volturi would quietly and discretely "take care of" the problem for him. Instead they had confided in King Henry that de Vaena was a demon, a traitor and a butcher, and that he was the one responsible for all of Neel's transgressions. _

_Henry had listened and England had suddenly become a very unpleasant place for de Vaena to be. As he had fled the country, fled the Volturi that still wanted him dead, Ricardo de Vaena had heard that a beautiful red-headed Italian had joined the new Queen's list of attendants. Trust Aro to place his own wife at the King's ear and, most certainly, in the King's bed._

_It was de Vaena's own fault that he had turned Neel, a mistake that de Vaena daily regretted making, but he didn't have to like his creation to not want to personally kill it. There were ties between maker and creation, and unless a newborn was killed in its first few years, it became hard to detach oneself. The fact that after five years of time together, that de Vaena was even considering doing so should how much sheer dislike de Vaena held for Neel. _

_"You won't kill me," Neel finally decided, licking the blood from his lips. "But thanks for the warning," he added with a smirk before wandering back to his side of the ship, returning to his playing. Ricardo de Vaena patted his own meal on the shoulder, feeding both the man and the rat a bit of salt pork before sighing. Forced loyalty was an unfortunate, inconvenient thing. _

_"No, I suppose I won't," the Spaniard said, shaking his head and smiling at his rat. "Ah well. One more vampire won't be the end of the world." _

_If the rat had an opinion, it never said a word. _

* * *

When Jacob's imprint declared that she was going to try and phase to save Seth, the first thing that Renesmee felt was a surge of hope and a renewal of her faith in her Pack. They were strong and they were brave, and they would fix things, she just knew it. But if Renesmee was being honest with herself, the second thing that she felt was jealousy. The little girl wanted to be the one able to save Seth, but she knew that she wasn't Quileute or even fully human.

There was simply no way that she could ever attempt to do the same.

There was a lot of chaos following the Alpha and his imprint leaving, and feeling small and different from the others around her, Renesmee took that opportunity to slip from her chair and to sneak into Seth's bedroom, where her grandfather had already returned to. Her wolf watched her go with knowing eyes, but Jack didn't follow her, instead turning his gaze back to their Packmates and subtly shifting his body in a way that said he was protecting that side of the house now, instead of the chair that she had previously been on.

Renesmee gave her wolf a small, tired smile before shutting the door behind her. It was hard for her to always understand the wolves, or herself when she was around them, and when in doubt it was easiest to return to the safety of what she knew best: vampires. Currently there was a vampire sitting on the bed next to Seth, resting a cold hand against the Beta's neck as Carlisle took Seth's pulse. Normally Renesmee could have been able to hear Seth's heart beating, a steady rhythm that always made Renesmee feel like she belonged around him. After all, her heart beat too, just another one of the endless differences between herself and her coven. But Seth's heartbeat was weak right now, and the wolves out in the living room were loud, and her grandfather was pressing his fingers against Seth's pulse point instead of listening.

"How are you holding up, Nessie?" Carlisle asked kindly, giving her an understanding smile as she tried to stand as close as she could to him without getting in his way. "This has been a very trying day."

Renesmee wasn't sure how to explain how she felt, and she reached her hand out to press it against her grandfather's arm to show him. Halfway through the motion, she dropped her hand and looked at Seth sadly.

"I want him to get better, Grandpa," she said softly. "Do you think it will work? If Jacob's imprint is a wolf too, will that make Seth get better?"

Carlisle frowned, his eyebrows knitting together thoughtfully as he adjusted the sheet a little higher on Seth's chest, covering the worst of his wounds from her eyes. "I believe that Jacob hopes it will. And I believe that your Jack is convinced it will. But it's hard for me to say, Nessie, because I'm looking at it from a medicinal point of view. I can't begin to explain what it is about an Alpha and his Pack that makes them each stronger, and before Jack imprinted on you, I was convinced that it mostly psychological. Now, I'm just not sure."

Renesmee didn't understand, and as she always did when she was settling into a conversation with her grandfather, she climbed up into his leg. It felt comforting having his arm around her as she leaned against his shoulder, and Carlisle gave her another smile as she asked, "What do you mean, Grandpa?"

"Well, Nessie," Carlisle explained patiently, "You know how being around one of us when we're thirsty makes Jasper thirsty? Even if he's already eaten? That's a psychological response. His body isn't thirsty, but his head tells him that he is. I've always wondered if perhaps what made the Alphas stronger when they were surrounded by their Packs was the _assumption_ that they were stronger. That in believing that they were stronger, their minds convinced their bodies that they were stronger, and made it a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. As a part of the supernatural world, I'm able to accept that some things could have a purely supernatural reasoning behind them, but in my experience, most things are based in scientific fact. It has been proven time and time again that the patient who believes they will live has a better chance of surviving a terminal illness than the patient that is convinced they're going to die. The mind is the most powerful muscle the human body has, Renesmee. There's no telling what it's capable of. But is it enough to save Seth? I don't know."

Renesmee thought about that, and then thought about her family's and her own gifts. "Grandpa? Is that why Aunt Alice can see the future? If the mind is the most powerful muscle, could it be that her mind is stronger than ours? Does she use her mind more than the rest of us?"

Carlisle nodded approvingly at her question, even as he gently corrected her. "I wouldn't say that specifically, Nessie, but I would hazard a guess that a proper test done on Alice's brain at the exact same time she has a vision would most likely show an increase in synapse activity. Unfortunately a vampire's body is nearly impossible to get even a proper x-ray on, so the delicacies necessary for imaging technology are out of the question. Maybe in a few decades or more, when technology is more advanced, it will be easier. Until then, I can only hazard a guess as to what happens. If I had been smarter, I would have run a few tests on your mother before she was changed. Even then she had the ability to block your father, to shield her thoughts from him. I'd be interested in knowing if that was because a certain part of her brain was more active than most people's or not."

It was a lot to think about, so Renesmee thought about it, and she also thought about herself. What could it be biologically that allowed her to pass her thoughts through skin contact? Was it a strange kind of one-sided telepathy, borne from the genetic combination of her parents' specific abilities? Renesmee remembered her gift being described as a blending of her mother's and father's gifts, but there was always the questions of how and why. How did any of them have these gifts? And why them? Why did some of the Quileute people get to phase and not others? Why Samantha and not Renesmee?

Renesmee knew, she just _knew_ that if she was given the chance, she could be equally brave.

Glancing over at Seth, the handsome young wolf's face dangerously pale, the questions of why came up again. Why him? Why Seth? Why anyone? Realizing that her thoughts were leaking over to her grandfather, Renesmee once again closed her palm, but she left her hand on his wrist, needing the comfort of contact right then.

"Grandpa? What is it about Mister Jack that makes you question your previous hypothesis about the wolves?" Renesmee asked, shifting a little so that she could bury herself more completely under his arm.

"Actually, Nessie," Carlisle said with a quirk to his lips. "It's not Jack that's making me reassess my assumptions. It's _you_." She looked up at him curiously and her grandfather hugged her tighter. "Let's just say, without going into greater details, that I think your Pack has had a distinct effect on you, more so than the proximity of Jacob and Jack should have accounted for."

"In a bad way?" Renesmee asked worriedly and Carlisle chuckled, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

"That's my granddaughter right there," he smiled, shaking his head. "You know, Nessie, one of these days you're going to give yourself an ulcer from worrying so much. And no, not in a bad way…in a more _human_ way. I think their effect, for good or bad situationally, is overall a positive in your life." Carlisle suddenly hugged her again. "Of course, telling you what those effects are will only make you dissect them in your head constantly, and possibly negate the good because of over-analyzation, so I'll keep them to myself. But in truth, I'm at a loss as to many aspects of the wolves and how they affect each other. I was hoping that you would be willing to share with me someday, when you're older and have spent more time with them."

The little girl nodded, saying, "Of course, Grandpa." She opened her mouth to say something more, but Carlisle went still, and Renesmee's heart hurt because she knew why. Seth's breathing had changed, it had become shallower and irregular, and she held her own breath until his evened out. Only then did her grandfather continue speaking.

"I always found the Packmind to be particularly interesting," Carlisle murmured, once again reaching over to touch Seth's brow. "Almost as if it was a particular form of telepathy, or maybe it's similar to the way insects are speculated to have a hive mind, a kind of collective intelligence. Wolves in the wild don't communicate beyond body language and vocal sounds, so it was always interesting to me that the Quileute wolves were linked telepathically. And from what I understand from speaking to Jacob, a wolf that is isolated from the Packmind suffers from that separation. It affects them mentally and socially, and the longer the separation, the harder it is for the wolf to re-adjust to being in the Packmind."

Renesmee looked up at her grandfather. "Did Mister Jack have a hard time re-adjusting to being in a Pack?" she asked curiously.

Carlisle gave her an amused look. "Nessie, I think you're the _only_ one that hasn't noticed that your wolf friend is uncomfortable around _all_ of us, including his own Packmates. It was one of our initial concerns regarding his imprinting, but Jacob is convinced that your Jack simply needs time to get used to being around his own kind again. When you're supposed to live one way, and you're forced to live another, that can be a very traumatic experience. I believe that your Jack has been living for many centuries in a way that has been painful for him, but he has adapted himself to that lifestyle in order to function. In truth, Nessie, your Jack has voluntarily lived with a vampire for years, and has even formed a sort of Pack/coven relationship with Rico. That's a unique thing among our kinds, even considering the treaty between our coven and Jacob's Pack. Can you think of any other wolf that would be willing to do that, to live side by side with a vampire?"

As she thought about it, she could think of only one. There was only one wolf open minded enough to do that. Renesmee's eyes shifted to Seth, and she told herself that she wasn't going to cry again. It was hard though, and it was only harder when her grandfather's arm tightened around her comfortingly.

"Nessie, do you need me to have Jack take you home?" Carlisle asked gently. "You've been very brave, but I know you'll need to feed soon, and Seth will understand. He wouldn't want you to be upset."

"Jacob needs me to be here, Grandpa," Renesmee whispered, wiping at her eyes, and there was a noise as the door opened just enough for her wolf to look at her and her grandfather, concern etched into his normally mild expression.

Jack's eyes swept her face before regarding Carlisle momentarily, and then he quietly slipped away, closing the door. Someone had found him another shirt, and Renesmee was relieved that she didn't have to see his back again. She had been nose to skin earlier when she had coming running in here a few hours ago, after waking up and just _knowing_ something was horribly wrong. When they had pulled Jack away from Seth, he had been choking on nothing and had blacked out, but her wolf hadn't stayed unconscious for more than a few seconds. And Renesmee thought that for his tiredness, he was moving with less stiffness in his shoulders, meaning he wasn't hurting as much. That was a very good thing.

Renesmee still hadn't spoken to Collin, although she was planning on writing him a strongly worded letter sometime soon. For someone who was supposed to be a Packmate, Renesmee thought that Collin was very much a bully. It had occurred to her that she could always bite him, but Renesmee was a well behaved child, and she knew that wasn't acceptable.

Of course if she lost control of her thirst while she was here, she couldn't help it if she just happened to drift a certain wolf's way...A certain big mean _bully_ wolf—

"Nessie," Carlisle chided gently, interrupting her train of thought. "People are allowed to make mistakes, even terrible ones. He's very upset with himself, you know, far more upset than you are with him. And Collin's been kind to you."

"Yes, Grandpa," she said immediately, but then she had to reconsider her agreement. Renesmee questioned whether or not that she felt bad about her thoughts, and then the little girl decided that she only felt bad about considering biting Collin. She wasn't ready to forgive him yet.

There was a noise in the now quieter living room, and Renesmee could hear Embry saying that it shouldn't have to be like this. Jared was whispering softly to Paul that he couldn't stay much longer, it was after dawn and his parents would soon be awake. Jared needed to be with his family, and even though they knew Seth had been hurt…no, Billy was telling the rez that it was a motorcycle accident and for all of the rez to stay away from Sue's house…yeah, Jared didn't think anyone would buy that either, but what choice did they have?...Maybe another hour…No, Jared really wasn't okay…

It was the deep hurt in Jared's voice that made Renesmee finally feel bad about wanting to bite Collin. The door opened again, and this time it was Sue, with Leah on her heels. The older woman seemed to be swaying on her feet, but she tried to give Carlisle a weak smile.

"Thank you, Dr. Cullen," Sue said in a voice made rough from crying. "Thank you for everything you've done…but we'd like to be alone with him now."

Renesmee felt her eyes begin to water again as her grandfather's arm loosened, allowing her to slip off of his leg so that Carlisle could stand. "Of course, Sue," her grandfather said, his voice gentle and sympathetic. Absently, Renesmee took his hand, still wanting that contact with him as her grandfather added, "Let me know if-"

And then it hit, a surging through the Packbonds that made Leah gasp and stagger, and the wolves out in the living room let out various noises of surprise and pain. Even Renesmee, who only felt a trickle of what the Pack experienced, went wide-eyed at the rush of adrenaline that flooded her veins, forcing her heart to beat faster and her throat to instantly dry.

"There's no fucking _way_," Paul started to say, and then Renesmee could hear a chair fall over as Paul surged to his feet. "_Seth!_" Paul roared, just as the Beta on the bed arched up, eyes snapping open.

"Go!" Seth gasped, staring at them wild-eyed as he forced out the order in a harsh snarl. "_Go help them!_"

And then Seth Clearwater fell back on the bed, dug his fingers into the mattress, and he began to scream.

* * *

The dark haired girl's teeth were gritted as she stared straight ahead of her. This time Samantha Carter was going to make _sure_ she phased.

As she marched through the forest, Samantha decided that she couldn't think about the actuality of what she was doing right now. She couldn't think about what that would mean for her, but she would think about Seth. There were four people in the world that Samantha loved, five maybe if she was being completely honest with herself, and Seth was one of them. So she thought about Seth as she walked through the snow and the freezing winds, thought about Seth as she ignored the bitter cold and her chattering teeth. Thought about Seth as the Alpha followed her, so large that his shadow fell across hers as he walked behind her. Thought about Seth as she lost all sense of direction, the trees pressing in on her, looming above her and leaning in, as if watching the steps her feet were taking.

Jake was right behind her. She was all alone, out in the woods, and the Alpha that she tried so hard to keep her distance from was right behind her. He was going to make her phase, was going to try to push her over the edge, and Samantha was pretty sure that she knew what that meant. Fear hadn't worked, vampires had worked, but Calgary had forced it. The only thing she knew was that this was going to hurt. Jake was going to hurt her, even though she was his imprint and that was supposed to be impossible. But she knew that if anyone could, Jake could.

There was an Alpha behind her. Stalking her. Stalking her through the woods, but Samantha wouldn't think about that now. She had work to do.

"Stop here."

Jake's order was deep, resonating across her senses, and Samantha struggled with it, struggled against it. She didn't want to listen to him, it was instinctual to not want to bend to him, but this spot was as good as any. The trees had opened into a small clearing and they were deep enough that no one would stumble across them. That was probably a good thing. Embry had said that new wolves were—

No. Samantha wasn't going to think about Embry, or how upset he had looked when she had made this decision without him. She was going to think about Seth. Seth who always smiled. Seth who was always teasing. Seth who was ripped open and could die. Seth was why she was out here, Seth was why she was stopping and turning to face the Alpha. Seth was why she had to be brave when she was terrified. There were so many consequences…Samantha decided that she wouldn't think about that or she'd lose her nerve. Instead she crossed her arms defensively over her chest, looking at the young man in front of her.

"So," Samantha asked uncomfortably. "How are we going to do this?" She let out a harsh chuckle and shook her head. "If possible, I'd prefer for no torture. Pain I can deal with, but please, no torture…" Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence despite her attempts at confidence, and Jake's eyes softened.

The Alpha gave her a sad smile, as if there was a lot that he regretted between them. "I'm not going to hurt you, Samantha," Jake told her quietly. "I'm too dominant and you're my imprint. I can't hurt you like that."

"Then how-" she started to say, but Jake had stepped closer, his fingers gripping the waistband of her jeans and giving her a small pull forward so that their torsos hit. It was more proximity than she was used to with him, but Jake's hand slipped away and Samantha held her ground.

"Give me a second," Jake stated quietly. "I'm trying to figure out how to do this." The Alpha was quiet for a moment, and Samantha stood with her nose in his chest, making herself not back away. She wouldn't be a coward, she wouldn't back away. Of course, every moment they stood here made that harder.

The wind picked up, and Samantha growled over the sound, "Okay, Jacob Black, I'm losing my nerve. Maybe a little torture just to break the ice? Threatening to kill my Dad worked well before."

Jake seemed to not hear her, instead he was letting his eyes sweep over the smallest nuances of her face. "You love Embry," Jake stated finally, and Samantha looked up at him, confused.

"Yes, I do, actually. What does that have to do with anything?"

Again Jake ignored her, and when he spoke, it was almost as if Jake was talking to himself, trying to talk himself _into_ something. "You love Embry and you only love Embry. You love Embry, and you'll fight like hell to be with Embry."

Samantha frowned. "Jake…"

"_Only_ Embry," Jake repeated, and he stepped forward a little, their torsos bumping again. "That's what pushes you. That's what brings it out in you." This time his hand moved to her face, and Samantha instinctively pulled back, trying to shift away. She couldn't, however, because Jake's hand was threading through her short hair. He didn't hurt her, didn't jerk her head backwards the way the Calgary Alpha had done, but he still had her head tilting backwards, baring her throat to him.

"Get the hell _off_ of me, asshole," Samantha snapped, instinctively nailing him behind the ear with a sharp blow, but instead of releasing her, Jake just pulled her in closer, his hands gentle but immovable.

"It's hard for you, isn't it?" Jake murmured thoughtfully. "That other Alpha hauled you around and beat the shit out of you. You never trusted me to begin with, so why would you start now? I'm just another wolf who's not Embry. I'm supposed to be more but I'm not because you saw him first. That happens to me a lot, you know."

Samantha growled, pushing on his chest even though she knew it wouldn't do anything. She didn't want to pull her wolf tooth on Jake, not after seeing Seth, so she wasn't sure how to back Jake off. "Yes, I saw Embry first. Embry, your _brother_, remember? Who would _kill_ you right now," Samantha reminded Jake, hating the fact that he was still making her to bare her throat to him. Embry never _made_ her do that. It was love, trust, affection, but this…this was all dominance. "Let go of my head."

Let go so she could lower her chin. Let go because that was Embry's and Embry's only. _Let go_.

Only Jake wasn't letting go. Jake had his face buried into her neck, inhaling deeply. "Do you have any clue how often I hold my breath around you?" Jake said softly. "Do you know how many times I close my eyes and wait for you to leave, wait for things to go back to normal? Only things _aren't_ normal, Samantha, and they'll never be normal again. No matter how many times I clamp down on that imprint bond, you're there. You're there in my head, always there."

"What the hell does that have to do with anything, Jake?" Samantha hissed furiously, something inside her crawling as teeth that weren't Embry's grazed her throat. That was Embry's place. _Embry's_. "Jake, I swear if you don't get off me _right now_ I'm going to _castrate_ you. We're here to help _Seth_."

And then she was ten steps back and still trying to keep her feet beneath her as Jake stalked her. Alphas were frightening, frightening enough to keep stepping backwards, frightening enough that she let herself get backed into a proverbial corner with no way out. Her shoulders dug into the bark of a young cedar tree as Jake pressed his body into hers. "Jake, we're trying to help _Seth_," Samantha snarled.

Jake gave her an apologetic look, braced one hand over her head and one against her hip, and he said calmly, "We are helping him." And then Jacob Black, Alpha of La Push, leaned in to kiss her.

He ended up kissing Fang instead.

Samantha really hadn't wanted to hurt Jake, but she wanted to kiss him less than she wanted to hurt him, and she didn't feel particularly bad when the Alpha earned a small slice on his lower lip for his efforts. Instead of growing angry, he just smirked, backing up a few steps as she wiggled Fang in his face.

"I was pretty sure you were going to say that," the Alpha murmured, before his eyes and voice grew serious. Jake licked the blood from his lip. "Samantha, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this a harder way. It's about dominance, it's about control, and it's about you submitting to me. Thus far you only have been willing to submit to Embry, but not to me, but I can't force you to phase without violence if I don't have submission. You have to be willing to do what I say. I'm not going to force you to sleep with me, but I need to dominate you somehow. I need you off balance and I need you worked up. This is the easiest way."

The girl narrowed her eyes, tightened her grip on her weapon. "I'm not cheating on Embry for this, Jacob Black," Samantha told him in a hard voice, and the Alpha's own eyes narrowed as she added, "Just take a page from Calgary, because whatever they did worked. We'll just have to fight it out."

"And I'm not beating the shit out of you for this, Apple Girl," Jacob growled back. "So unless you want to fuck it out, I guess whether Seth lives or dies is on his own head."

"I guess so," Samantha snarled, staring at him angrily. They stayed like that, glaring furiously at each other, neither budging, neither willing to give an inch. Both knowing that they longer they stood there, the greater Seth's chances at dying. Finally Jake cursed and Samantha snarled, and in one step from each they finally met in the middle. Neither would ever know what the other would have done at that moment, because a change in the wind brought a scent that had Jake freezing in place. At the exact same time, Samantha stiffened.

"Jake…" she whispered warningly, and the Alpha's face darkened, an expression of slowly building fury on his face.

"I know," Jake growled as he stared over her head, not bothering to turn around and look at the two men who had appeared out of the woods behind him, as if silent ghosts. "And right now is _not_ the time to come uninvited into my territory. I don't know how you two got past our allies, but _go back_ to your Alpha, and tell him to keep you on a shorter leash," Jake added with a snarl.

Samantha's instincts were to get back from Jake when he sounded like that, but her counter-instincts were to stay exactly where she was when there were two strange wolves that close to her, wolves that she recognized only because of their bright blue eyes.

_Wolfborn_. Both of Tupkuk's wolfborn were here, wolfborn that had put Paul in his place without even blinking an eye. Wolfborn that didn't even flinch at the deep rumbling annoyance in Jake's voice, or the Alpha strength he put in his words. Instead they blinked in unison, and one smiled slightly.

"Our Alpha sent us," the one said, as if that was good enough reason to invade La Push territory. "We're to find another Alpha, at least until your Beta lives or dies."

"Wihl told me it wouldn't work, but I still tried to choose the she-wolf," the second added, and Samantha watched his head tilt like a wolf. "She wasn't paying enough attention."

Jake let a snarl at that, but still kept his back to the wolfborn, still stared at the trees behind Samantha's head. Samantha could see Jake's jaw tightening as his teeth gritted down, and Samantha reconsidered whether or not she should take her chances out of his proximity. His nostrils flared as she began to break out into a cold sweat despite the weather.

Samantha didn't like other wolves. She barely handled having her own Pack around her, and she _really_ didn't like other wolves.

"Hla'o," the first one said, hunkering down on his heels, blue eyes locked on Jake's back. "I'm choosing him for now, it's what our Alpha wanted."

The second one sighed, looked at his twin a bit petulantly, and then nodded. "If we have to."

The imprint bond had been open wide between them ever since Seth's bedroom, and so when the wolfborn decided that Jake was their new Alpha, Samantha could feel far more of what Jake felt than normal. The force of their sudden presence in the Pack was like experiencing a massive rush of energy, combined with taking a fist to the gut, and even Jake grunted because of it. Samantha gasped and grabbed onto the Alpha for balance, her own head spinning from the carryover. Taking a new wolf into his Pack was supposed to make Jake stronger, but Samantha now knew that having it done without giving the Alpha a choice in the matter was a painful experience indeed.

"_Hell_," Jake muttered, wrapping his arm around Samantha's waist to keep her on her feet as he finally turned and glared at them over his shoulder. "Did you both have to do that shit at the _same_ time?"

The wolfborn just gazed at him and blinked, although Hla'o gave Jake a bored look and Wihl seemed unimpressed. "This one complains more than the last one," Wihl decided.

"He's frustrated that he has to make his imprint phase," Hla'o murmured, tilting his head again, and then the wolfborn yawned. "She's weak and cannot do it herself. She's not worth his efforts."

"He _is_ the Alpha," Wihl reminded Hla'o in a mild rebuke. "He may prefer his Pack to be handled in different ways." Samantha felt a warning chill go down her spine as they both smiled at her and in tandem said, "We will help."

And that's all the warning they had.

Samantha knew how fast wolves were, and she knew that there was no way that she would be able to protect herself as both wolfborn phased and lunged for her. Jake, however, reacted just as fast, a bellow of rage rolling out of his chest as the Alpha shoved her behind him and rounded on the wolfborn, phasing so close to Samantha that she felt fur brush her hand. Samantha had the chance to try and find a place to put her back, but the closest trees were small, slender saplings, and even as she tried to take a step, the wolfborn split into two different directions. One flanked her as Jake slammed into the first head one, snarling and slicing at the wolfborn with his jaws. Jake was bigger and heavier, but he was even faster than Samantha had given him credit for. Phasing human while still entangled with the first wolfborn, Jake grabbed it by the neck and heaved the steel grey body into the second wolfborn on her other side, sending both flying backwards in a tangled heap.

"Stay in one place and stay _down_," Jake snapped at her before phasing back into his russet wolf form, lunging past her and leaping into the entangled wolfborn with a terrible snarl. Samantha did as she was told, knowing that listening to Jake was her best chance right now, even though something inside of her was rejecting this, was angry at this, wasn't willing to sit here and _take_ this shit anymore.

Samantha could feel Jake's rage rolling through her as she ducked down, the Alpha's intent clear as he tried to fight the wolfborn back from her, to drive them off. He wanted the wolfborn to _**stop**_, but for some reason they weren't, as if they had decided that Jake's need for Samantha to phase was stronger than his need for them to not hurt her. Or maybe they were just enjoying themselves as the mass of wolves came tumbling back her way, and it was all Samantha could do to force herself to stay in place, knowing that it wasn't so much her as this spot on the ground that Jake was protecting. If she moved too much, he would have to compensate for her and it could hurt them both.

Teeth grazed Samantha's hip, cut through her jeans and into her skin before Jake could force his way over her, snapping his teeth and driving the wolfborn back. Hunkered beneath Jake…no, now behind him as the Alpha lunged and sliced open on of the wolfborn across the chest, the one that had gotten their teeth into her, Samantha watched the cut on her hip drip blood into the snow. She was helpless and she couldn't do anything. Again, she was helpless, and Samantha hated it.

Every time. Every _fucking_ time. The fang clutched in her hand was nothing without the power behind it, without the speed needed to land any sort of hit. She was so tired of not being strong enough, of not being fast enough. She was so _tired_ of this. It made her so damn _angry_.

A sharp yelp followed by a nasty snarl, and Samantha watched Jake get rolled as one of the wolfborn darted beneath the Alpha, taking his legs out from under him, the other wolfborn leaping excitedly on top of the russet wolf. Jake wasn't holding back, and he was getting his teeth into anything his jaws came close to, including that wolf's muzzle, slicing it down to the bone. Bleeding heavily, the wolfborn jumped back, only to have the other snap at Jake's heels, forcing the Alpha to twist and defend his flank. The wolfborn with the sliced muzzle launched itself back into the three wolf dog pile, and it occurred to her that the harder Jake fought, the more fun it seemed like the wolfborn were having. Bloodied and hurt, they were treating it as a game.

Seth's life was on the line, and these two were playing a goddamn _game_.

As she watched Jake fight, Samantha felt the whole world slow down, slow down enough that she could make out every single snap of teeth. Every single wrinkled lip or crouched body, ready to spring. Every drop of blood, splattering across the snow. Crimson on white, russet against grey, blue eyes and brown. This was what Embry had spared her from that night on the cliffs, watching wolves rip into each other. And maybe that night would have been worse, because it would have been her watching Embry get hurt, but watching Jake getting hurt wasn't much better, not when she knew how exhausted he was, how worried he was, how he didn't have the time or the energy to be doing this, fighting with these wolves. Wolves that were fighting to get to her.

As she watched teeth almost snag her shoulder, watched herself try to duck and twist away, watched Jake sink his teeth into a hind leg and drag a wolfborn's snapping jaws out of her face, Samantha resigned herself to the fact that wolves were going to hurt her again. They were going to hurt her. _Again_. It was like she couldn't get away from this shit. And yeah, she had figured that Jake might have to, but that was Jake and that was with her permission. That was for a reason, that was for the _best_ of reasons. _Seth_ was the best of reason. But this? This was shitty. This was wasting Jake's strength, and it was wasting Seth's strength, and they just didn't have time for this shit.

How dare they come into La Push now of all times? _How dare they?_

More blood splattered the ground. Samantha didn't know whose it was, and to be honest, she didn't particularly care. What she cared about was that blood was being spilt at all, right now when they had more important things to do.

Samantha raised her head, her teeth gritting as a paw kicked crimson snow across her face. She could feel it, crawling beneath her skin as she felt more of her Pack coming this way. They were coming this way when they were needed with _Seth_. They needed to stay with _Seth_, but because of these two assholes, they were coming here. For her. Away from Seth, away from where they were most needed. Dammit, they were going away!

Well**, **_fuck _that.

They were going to get past Jake's guard because they were just too skilled not to manage it, although it was going to cost them. The one with the torn chest managed it next, and Samantha watched the wolf dart in at her, so very fast that she shouldn't have been able to do a thing about it. But something was done crawling, done lurking beneath the surface of her skin, and it wasn't that hard to grab a grey throat with her human fingers at it bit at her face, and Samantha was pretty sure that the blood across the snow was her own again. Funny, shoving her hand down the wolfborn's throat wasn't as scary as it should be, especially with Fang clutched tightly in her fist. There was a startled and painful yelp, and she watched with detached interest as wolf jaws raked down her arm from elbow to fist, shredding flesh down to bone.

It didn't matter anymore. It didn't matter because instead of being hurt, she was just angry. Angry enough that she was shaking. Angry enough that it didn't matter that Jake had gotten between her and the wolfborn or that her Pack was almost there. Angry enough that she—

She lunged at her enemy, not the one that had injured, but the other one, the one going for her Packmate's leg. The Alpha was big and he was crouched down, but there was enough room between the ground and his belly for her to duck beneath him and come up right under the wolfborn's chin. There were noises in her head, loud swelling masses that were confusing, but she ignored them, focused on the throat beneath her jaws, focused on tearing at the wolfborn's chest with her claws as she hung on.

The wolfborn yelped and shook his head, jaws snapping and missing her as he tried to jerk her off, but she wasn't going anywhere. Her Packmate had done sufficiently well handling two when having someone to protect on all sides, so she had faith that he could handle just one without her. Plus it felt good having fur and flesh give beneath her jaws. She didn't even notice that both of the wolfborn had stopped fighting, as if something had happened that meant their fight was over. All she knew as that this one was going to ground.

And she was going to put him there.

The scent of her Pack filled her nostrils and as the wolfborn twisted out of her grip, her razor sharp teeth sliced lengthwise down his neck. Snarling and furious that she had lost grip of her prey, she dropped down and backed off a step, crimson stained lips wrinkling up from her jaws. The blue-eyed wolfborn was bleeding from multiple wounds, and he looked confused, as if uncertain whether he was supposed to be fighting her or not.

He didn't have to fight if he didn't want to. She was still going to kill him.

The noises in her head swelled up to a crescendo, as if someone or multiple someones were yelling at her, but she didn't listen. She didn't like the noises, they made her angrier, and as she snarled at something she couldn't see, the world tilted sideways, making her lurch.

The noises were suddenly gone, and her shredded arm was almost healed already, but she threw up in the snow, gagging as her body twisted and changed again. Her arm was a paw, and the wolfborn twins in front of her were surrounded by humans, her Packmates, but that one on the left was _her_ kill. _Hers_. She needed to help the Beta, and _that one_ had gotten in the way. She had things to do and she snarled—

Snarling as she pressed her forehead in the snow, shaking as her stomach tied itself into knots, unloosening as she heard one noise in her head, and she shook her…she shook her face—

No, her muzzle. She shook her muzzle to get the noise out, even though it was soft and steady now in her ears. Her prey had folded in upon himself and crouched in the snow, now a nude human male, and she regained her feet, not fooled in the least by his passive pose. With a snarl, she flung herself at the wolfborn, deciding to go for his belly. That was the right place, the right wound to stop him.

_Stop_.

Only she was confused, didn't know why she stumbled when that noise became clearer, didn't know why her Packmates had leapt on her when she did. But she didn't like it, not one bit, especially not when one wrapped their hand around her muzzle and forced it closed, holding her head to the earth. She tried to snap her teeth but only managed to bite her own tongue in fighting, and started to grow panicked and more confused as heavy bodies forced her to the ground.

Ground. She was on the ground, but she didn't understand why Embry and Quil and Jared were on top of her, and she didn't like that when she had something to kill, didn't like the way that her mate's fingers dug into her muzzle because it was making it hard to breath, and she was seeing dark spots on the white and red stained snow. She tried to whine, tried to tell her mate that she couldn't breathe…

"Sims, just calm, baby. Come on, sweetheart, stay with us this time-"

Stay on the ground, stay beneath their weight. No. No, no, no, she didn't like that. They had her on her back, were exposing her neck and belly, and it petrified her, even as the noise began to croon a soft melodic tone. Fighting she—

_Stop_. _Stop_, _Samantha_…

She screamed against Embry's hand, fighting being held down, and they loosened their grips when she struggled, her mate the only one that had knowledge of how to restrain her when in human form. Jake's face hovering over hers as she twisted and—

She twisted and got her four paws beneath her, snarling terribly and utterly confused—

More confused as she was once again on two knees, once again throwing up—

More confused as she tripped on her own paws trying to back away, realizing that she was in trouble. She didn't know how to walk with two feet and then four, didn't know how to bite with human teeth when she was trying to snap with fang. She didn't understand what was happening, her whole body shaking as paws snapped to fingers, and then snapped back to fur covered paws. She didn't understand…

_Stop, Samantha, stop phasing_.

She started to—

_STOP, SAMANTHA, stop phasing_.

She was still going to—

_**STOP, SAMANTHA**_. _**STOP PHASING**_.

With a shudder, Samantha's mind clicked into place, finally meshed with the wolf inside, the way it was meant to. Jake's voice curling through her head as he spoke to her a steady stream of words, his russet body massive next to her. He was a wolf again, hadn't he just been a man? Hadn't…she didn't understand. She didn't understand. She didn't understand. Shedidn'tunderstandShedidn'tunderstandShedidn'tunderstandShedidn't—

A warm powerful voice was the noise inside her head, telling her that it was okay, she didn't _have_ to understand. She was safe with Jake, she was safe with her Pack, so she didn't have to understand.

_Jake_? The voice was _Jake_?

Of course, the Alpha thought reassuringly. What, did she think he was going to let another Alpha be around when _his_ imprint phased?

Jake's words were gentle, but Samantha struggled beneath having the weight of his thoughts in her head. She could see Jake next to her, on his belly in the snow, his russet muzzle near hers, but she could also see her through his eyes. She didn't recognize the wolf on the ground, the one that was wild-eyed and panting heavily, her sides darkened in sweat and her mouth wet with crimson and white foam.

It was hard seeing two visuals at once and for a moment everything became deeply confusing, to the point that she panicked. Jake's voice in her head became rushing noise again, and she bit something warm and soft without really understanding why, but despite her actions nothing bit her back. Instead someone was covering her eyes, and there was only one of her now. It made things easier. She could see herself through Jake's eyes that she had bitten Embry, Embry who had blood dripping down his arm but who was still rubbing his other hand soothingly up and down her fur covered throat, trying to calm her. Jack had joined in and was helping Embry and Quil restrain her, and she could see all of their mouths moving, but she couldn't hear anything that they were saying.

Jake thought that if his imprint could calm down enough, she'd hear that they were telling her she was okay. Everything was okay, and everything would be better if she could relax enough to let Jake pull her the rest of the way into the Pack. When she had phased, she had twisted up her bonds to them and Jake wanted to smooth that out, to make things easier for her and for the rest of them too. He needed to take her fully into the Pack, more deeply than just an imprint, but as a sister to them now. He could do it forcefully, but he didn't want to. Jake wanted her to accept him, to accept them all, to finally take her place as one of them. They loved her, and she was one of them, and this could all be a lot less confusing with their help.

Warm breath over her muzzle as a wet nose touched lightly against hers, and there was a formality in his words shifting through her thoughts. Would she accept him as her Alpha?

There was enough of Samantha left inside her own confused head to wonder if she even had a choice. And then her thoughts, like a rollercoaster tipping slowly over the highest peak, began to gain speed and momentum, spiraling out of control as her mind flashed through every time she had not been given a choice in the matter, experiences where her freedom had been taken away. And there were so many, so many, and then she simply couldn't control any of her thoughts, her hopes and her dreams and her fears and her doubts and her secrets…oh, so many secrets, pouring by the bucketful over Jake. Washing him with her hidden desires, her darkness, and her sins.

Things no one was ever supposed to know or ever see, but Jacob Black knew and saw them _all_.

It didn't matter. None of it mattered, because she was one of them, the Alpha told her, his words like a blanket in her head, slowing her down, helping her become sane. The Alpha wanted to help her, to take her into his Pack. Would she let him?

She would, but she didn't know—

This time Samantha was slightly aware of what was happening, and she felt her bones crack as she phased. For a moment she was wolf, and then she was human under her Packmate's hands. She had chewed her tongue up so it was hard to speak, and her voice came out as a whine against Embry's skin. And then she—

And then she could only whine out of her throat, her muzzle shoved against her mate's skin. Embry was telling her that it was okay, to calm down, just try and calm down…Jake must have been trying to be gentle because where it had just been his voice and his presence, now she could feel the weight of his control forcing down on her, _making_ her calm down. There was a moment where she looked up into Jake's eyes, and she saw in him the person she most needed to see right then. An Alpha. Someone who could help her because she didn't—

She couldn't—

Calmness because Jake was making her become calm. He was doing this because he had to now, and she'd just have to be angry at him later. It hurt when he pulled her into the Pack, but only for a moment. It felt like a square peg being pulled into a circular hole, but the Alpha kept pulling, and eventually her corners gave way. And then Jake was heavy in her mind, but in a better way. A more reassuring way, as if him being there was a good thing, a right thing.

It was right, Apple Girl, her Alpha promised her. She was okay. Not only was she okay, she was with people that would make sure she was okay. She should use her nose. Couldn't she smell Embry was there with her?

She could. She could smell him, and she could hear him talking to her, telling her he loved her.

The Alpha knew that Embry loved her very much, that they all did, and that everything was fine. Her phasing was making Seth heal faster, and Jake was desperately proud of her. Proud of her for being brave enough to do this. Proud of her for taking on a wolfborn all on her own. Proud of her for staying calm and not phasing. She was doing better. She hadn't phased in several minutes. Everything was okay, Samantha.

But the wolfborn…

They were just two new Packmates, her Alpha dismissed them with deep undercurrents of anger in his tone. Two new _stupid_ Packmates that would be boxed up and mailed back to their Alpha as soon Seth healed, if Jake didn't kill them first. Good intentions aside, Calgary had no right to interfere with _his_ Pack this way.

And all progress that Jake had made after nearly an hour of fighting to hold her steady, to keep her from constantly phasing, disintegrated in one word. The memories came flooding back, with a clarity and force that shoved Jake right out of her head.

Calgary.

She could remember everything they said, everything they did—

_Calgary_.

She could remember—

_**Calgary**_.

She could—

_**Calgary**_. _**Calgary**_. _**CalgaryCalgaryCalgary**_...

And like dust in the wind, what was left of her blew away from Jake's fingertips.

* * *

"Go. _Go help them!_"

When Seth snarled his order, there was so much strength in it that even Renesmee took a step back, as if to turn and run towards…towards who? Leah was halfway to the door, moving on instinct, but Seth's strangled scream brought her up short and she cursed, lunging back for the bed. Sue gave out a cry as Seth's arm smacked into the night stand next to the bed, the piece of heavy wooden furniture flying across the room and shattering against the wall. Her grandfather let go of her hand and hurried to try and restrain the injured wolf with Leah, Seth twisting beneath them, still conscious and in terrible pain.

Out in the living room, Renesmee could hear Paul roaring at Embry as the other wolf darted out of the house, Jared and Brady and Quil at Embry's heels. The Beta had given them an order and they had to go, but for some reason Paul was trying to rescind the order, and only half the Pack was listening. Her own wolf let out a noise of confusion, as if torn, but then Paul snarled at Jack and Sam to go, go and if those fuckers tried to mess with Jack at _all_, to take them both out.

Collin was still there, but struggling with it until Paul told him in no uncertain terms to _stay_. Collin stayed.

Confused as to what was going on, but confident that even injured her wolf must be strong enough to handle anything, Renesmee pressed her back to the wall, making sure she was out of the way. She tried to ignore the heat in her throat as a second rush went through the connection between herself and her Pack, smaller than the first but still significant enough to make Leah curse and Paul to yell at his own imprint to get to the back bedroom and to lock the doors, to stay put into he said it was okay. Kim wanted to know what was going on, but Emily just darted into Seth's room as Collin pushed Cassie and Kim towards Sue's bedroom.

"Come on, Nessie," Emily said, reaching for her, but the little girl shook her head, backing up more and plugging her nose. "Nessie? What's wrong?"

"Renesmee needs to stay here with me," Carlisle said in a clipped voice, struggling to hold down Seth as the Beta continued to scream. "Emily, it would be best if you gave her some space."

Emily realized what that meant and despite herself, the older woman froze. Then her lips tightened. "If we're in danger, she is too," Emily said firmly. "I trust her."

"Then you're a foolish human," Carlisle snapped, shocking all of them, even Renesmee with his growl. "You'll be dead before she can stop herself, so get back from my granddaughter, Emily. If she kills you, it'll be of no fault of her own, but she'll never forgive herself for it. _Get back_."

Renesmee saw the look of frustration on Emily's face, but then Paul and Collin were in the room, and they were shoving Emily and Sue outside. The little girl wanted to be able to go with Emily, liked the idea of the bedroom with the imprints a lot more than standing here watching Seth thrash and scream in pain, but she knew she wasn't safe for anyone this way. The best she could do was press her face into the corner of the walls, plugging her nose as the burning grew and grew, her hand wrapping around her own throat to try and ease the feel of it. She wasn't aware that she made a little sniffling noise, or that the wolves could still hear it despite Seth, but as Paul moved to hold Seth's legs down and free Carlisle to actually start helping the Beta, strong arms picked her up. It was Collin.

"Hey there, squirt," the young wolf said gently as he carried her out of the room, and despite her tears and her hand on her nose, Renesmee still tried to give him her sternest glare. It fell when Seth let out another, more awful scream, and Renesmee buried her face against Collin's shoulder instinctively. Despite her earlier thoughts to her grandfather, she really didn't mean to bite him, and she tried to get her mouth away before she tasted his blood on her tongue, but Collin just grunted in surprise at the pain. She looked at him in horror, but for the first time since she had arrived, Collin seemed less distraught. Instead a hard, determined expression was on his face, an expression that matched Paul's almost perfectly.

"Doc? You gonna freak if Ness and I go hang out in the kitchen for a while?" Collin said in a calm tone despite the chaos around them, shifting her in his arms so that she couldn't bite him again, but the scent of his blood, fresh and healthy made her throat erupt in flames. Renesmee let out a cry and Carlisle looked over his shoulder at them. He frowned and then nodded curtly.

"Be careful Collin," was all her grandfather said, turning back to Seth and frowning as he spoke to Paul and Leah in low, fast words. The Beta's face was twisted in agony, and it looked like he had bitten his tongue. "I think his body is trying to kill the infection in his blood stream first. Hold him tighter and find something to get in between his teeth, or he might bite through his tongue. I need to try and get him another shot of antibiotics…_Hold him_!"

"We're trying!" Leah snapped as Collin carried Renesmee out of the room and down the hall, past the living room and into the kitchen. She was fighting him at this point, not deliberately but because the thirst was so bad that she needed to run, to hunt, to drink _something_. And her sensitive nose told her that in this very building there were multiple things that would suffice, even if her heart panicked at the thought of hurting her Pack. There was a level of rejection so deep inside of her at the idea of attacking one of her own that Renesmee began to cry harder, not knowing what to do.

"Easy kiddo," Collin hushed her, setting her down on the kitchen counter by the sink. He kept one arm locked around her tightly and shifted so that he was leaning his hip against the counter near her legs. When Collin put his wrist up to her face, Renesmee was too far gone to do anything but drink. It was the second time she had ever drunk from a human. The first time had been Jake, the day she had crossed over the border into La Push, and now again in La Push the little girl tasted fresh human blood again. It was better, so much better than bags of blood heated in the microwave or animal blood, even when fresh. But even as half of her fell upon the taste like a starving animal, the other half of her fought it, rejected the fact that she was doing this.

A couple months ago, it had taken Renesmee a long time to break away from Jacob. This time after only a minute or two, the child forced back the killer that was her other half, and she jerked away from Collin's wrist, looking up at him in shame and dread. She was still thirsty, but the flames in her throat had cooled to a warm heat that was manageable.

"I'm sorry, Collin," Renesmee whispered sadly, wiping at her lips with her hand as if to cover up what she had done. "I'm really very sorry."

The wolf hadn't been watching her. Maybe seeing her drinking from him had been too strange for him, and he had chosen to stare at the sink faucet instead, or maybe the young wolf just was fascinated by sink faucets. Either way, he turned to her when she apologized and gave her a tight smile.

"Don't apologize, Nessie," Collin told her quietly, that hard expression still on his face. "You're Pack. I'm supposed to help…" Collin's voice cracked, but then he cleared his throat. "I'm supposed to help my Pack, not hurt them. I've pretty much ruined that with Jack, and I've got a lot shit to make up to him. If I can take care of you, then that's the first thing I need to be doing. Drink, Ness, I'm fine."

Renesmee bit her lower lip and looked down. "Are you sure, Collin? I…I wasn't very nice to you in my head," she whispered apologetically. "I'm okay for now." Okay, but still thirsty enough to still have her hand on her throat, rubbing it unconsciously. That must have been how Collin knew. The handsome young wolf quirked a smile at her.

"You really do worry too much, don't you kid?" Collin said, grimacing at the sound of something breaking and Seth roaring in pain. "Nessie, if you're still thirsty, you need to drink," he told her quietly, giving her a comforting hug. "The sooner you're back to yourself, the sooner I can help in there. Don't worry, I'll tell you if you need to stop."

His permission, combined with the already bleeding wrist given to her, was what she needed. Renesmee wasn't sure how long she drank, it was hard to focus when the blood going down her throat tasted so good, made her feel so _good_, but when she reached the point where her throat didn't feel scratchy anymore, she forced herself to pull away. Collin grunted, and he looked a little pale, but he just ruffled her hair.

"Feel better?" Collin asked and Renesmee nodded, feeling only slightly sloshy.

"Yes, thank you, Collin," she said as politely as she could. Then, because Renesmee was loyal where it was most important, she gave him an apologetic look. "But I'm still unhappy with you for hurting Mister Jack," she admitted.

Collin gave her a sad smile and ruffled her hair again, picking her up in the arm that she hadn't fed from. "Mister Jack, huh? Well, kiddo, by the time _I_ forgive myself for hurting _Mister_ Jack, your vamp daddy's going to be in old person diapers."

"Collin?"

Renesmee peered over Collin's shoulder to see Cassie, Paul's imprint, standing in the living room. By her strained expression, she must have been there since before Renesmee finished feeding, a sign that Collin must have been equally distracted by the process as Renesmee. Cassie's face was tense, and it was obvious that she was uncomfortable, but she held out her arms. "I'll take her, Collin," Cassie said softly. "I think Paul needs you in there."

Collin almost passed Renesmee over, but then he seemed to think better of it. "Maybe in a few minutes, Cass," Collin said firmly, hoisting Renesmee up a little higher on his shoulder and ushering Cassie back towards the hall. "Let Ness have a chance to decide if she's full or not. Come on, Cass, you need to stay in there. We've got two wolfborn that just decided to join the Pack and mess with Sims, and Jake's hitting the roof over it."

Cassie's eyes widened, but instead of questioning Collin, she did as she was told, giving Seth a sad little look as she went back past the open bedroom door. Renesmee's thoughts must have been broadcasting, because Collin nodded. "Yeah, Cass has been in some tough situations," Collin told her quietly enough that the older imprint wouldn't overhear. "She knows when to make a stand and when to duck and cover."

"Collin, what's a wolfborn?" Renesmee whispered as Collin carried her near to the door but he turned her so that her chin was resting on his shoulder, the place where she had bitten him first now long since healed. She tried to turn her face to look at Seth, but Collin shifted so that again she was looking away.

"Wolfborns are trouble," Paul growled in answer to her question. "Collin, get in here."

"What's going on?" Collin asked, his voice twisting in uncertainty as he stepped into the room, finally letting Renesmee see what was happening. The room looked like a battle zone, the blankets and pillows strewn across the floor as Seth twisted and strained up into the arms holding him down. His cries were muffled by the fact that Leah had stuck her hand between his teeth, apparently the only thing they could find that Seth couldn't bite through. The she-wolf was fighting to hold him down with one arm and a half arms, and Paul was struggling to keep the Beta's legs flat on the bed. Renesmee's grandfather was bent over Seth a look of intense concentration on his face as he tried to hold Seth immobilized on either side of his wounds. It wasn't working, the Beta was in far too much pain.

"His body is rejecting the antibiotics again," Carlisle growled, looking frustrated as Collin set Renesmee down and went to help Leah hold Seth's shoulders to the bed. "Whatever happened out there, it was like it gave him a burst of energy that kick started his body healing again. Only it didn't last long enough and he moved around too much. Things started healing back together wrong. Nessie, are you feeling thirsty at all?"

The little girl blinked, having been lost staring at the scene in front of her. "Umm…no, Grandpa. I drank enough to be fine for a long time. Collin was very nice about it."

"Then I need you to go stay in the corner and tell me if that changes at all," Carlisle told her briskly. "Leah, are you still counting his heartbeats?"

"They're slowing down, he's not fighting as much," Leah informed him, and Renesmee's grandfather growled a word under his breath that the little girl had never heard him say.

"It's too soon," Carlisle muttered in frustration. "His body is quitting again. Whatever Jacob did, it didn't last long enough." As Renesmee slipped into her corner, half listening to Leah telling Seth that his ass better stay right where it was, she focused on her grandfather's face. Carlisle looked very intense, as if trying to figure out a problem that was much too difficult to solve in the time allotted to him.

Paul didn't bother muttering his words, instead cursing openly as the Beta seemed to slump, Seth's eyes rolling back in his head. "Doc, what do we do?" Paul asked sharply. "He was starting to get better, what do we do?"

"I don't know," Carlisle said, taking the opportunity of Seth being still to haul his medical kit closer and pull out a scalpel. Even Paul winced when Carlisle began to reopen things that had bound themselves together in an awful way. "His heart rate spiked, and it increased the flow of blood to his organs. Only he was suffering from blood poisoning…I could smell the difference as his white blood cells attacked the infection and the fresh red blood cells increased. He was almost through fixing the worst problem, but he had too many other problems that were just as bad…"

Renesmee had heard her grandfather talk like this before, as the eldest vampire of her coven tried to walk himself through a problem. Leah made a pained noise and looked at Carlisle.

"His heart rate is still dropping and his breathing is rougher," Leah said, and she looked close to tears. "Did Samantha phase? Paul? Are we _sure_ she phased?"

"She phased," Paul replied with a grimace. "And Jacob's having a hell of a time keeping her that way. Come on, Seth, I'm not ready to be Beta yet..."

Collin was watching Carlisle as well, and he asked softly, "What is it, Carlisle?"

Renesmee's grandfather shook his head, carefully blotting a small incision that should have healed already by now. Instead the vampire began suturing it, golden eyes unblinking as he focused on his task. "It's frustrating that so many medicines don't work with your Pack, Collin," Carlisle admitted. "Pain killers in massive amounts help a little, but your systems immediately start flushing the chemicals out. Seth's body is too weak to do that, so instead of getting a small amount of help from the antibiotics, his body is simply rejecting it, treating it like another bacteria. It's like your systems don't want to keep _anything_ foreign in them…"

The vampire trailed off and then suddenly Carlisle turned his head towards Renesmee, where she stood silently in her corner. "Nessie, I was holding your hand when you first experienced the change in the Pack. What did it feel like to you?" he asked quickly, and Renesmee immediately thought about the most accurate way to answer, and the kind of answer that her grandfather would be looking for. He wouldn't care about how it made her feel emotionally, at least not in regards to helping Seth. Seth's problems were physical, so Renesmee most likely needed to provide a physical answer. And physically, she had felt…energized. Almost painfully energized, so much so that her body reacted as if she was using it and it needed to be refueled. A jolt of strength. A moment where she had felt full of—

"Grandpa, it felt like a response to a stimulus that would increase the adrenaline levels in my system."

"What the hell did she just say?" Leah asked, blinking, but Carlisle was nodding, an expression of understanding finally in his face.

"_Exactly_, Nessie. Good girl. Pure adrenaline is about as natural a substance as it gets, and increased levels of adrenaline could create the same kind of results as what Seth experienced during healing," Carlisle said, sounding as if he was particularly pleased with her. The vampire reached into his back pocket and pulled out a cell phone, not even looking at it as he dialed a number. The person on the other line picked up after only two rings. "Misty, it's me. I need you to do something and don't ask questions. I need you to prepare a shot of adrenaline and leave it in my top desk drawer…No, five times that…Right now, Misty. As fast as you can, and then leave my office for the next hour…yes, everything's okay. Or at least, I hope it will be. Hurry Misty and don't let anyone see you. Thank you."

Collin had a funny look on his face, and when Carlisle looked at the wolves, he was the first one to say, "I'll go get it."

"I'm faster," Leah decided, standing up and briefly touching her younger brother's brow. She said something to him in Quileute and then turned to Carlisle. "Which one is your office?"

"Alice will have already sent one of us to get it, now that she knows I called Misty," Carlisle told Leah, who looked confused. "She watches Misty, so someone will meet you on the way. I'll call just to make sure," he added, but Leah was already off like a shot. Renesmee wondered if she should have offered to go, but she wasn't sure if maybe the she-wolf was faster than her.

It didn't take long for Leah to come running back with the medicine in her hand, but every moment felt like a lifetime in which they listened to Seth's heartbeat fade. The Pack returned, most of them at least. Samantha and Embry were still gone and Jared too, and there were two new scents that Renesmee didn't recognize outside the house, two wolves she didn't know. It hurt her feelings a little bit when Jack never came inside to see her, but Renesmee figured that he was busy outside with the other two wolves and Jake.

Unlike before, when they had left the room mostly empty for Carlisle to have room to work, now everyone was packing into the crowded space. Sue was there, ignoring Carlisle's cautions that if Seth woke up again in a violent manner then she could get hurt. Seth's mother sat on the bed, stroking her son's hair and murmuring prayers that Renesmee could recognize. It may have been the Quileute spirits that Renesmee's wolf prayed to, but Sue Clearwater prayed to the Christian God that Renesmee and her father believed in.

Forgotten in her corner, the Renesmee bowed her head and prayed as well, thinking that even if God was still angry with her for asking Him to take her new friend back a couple months ago, that he may be willing to forgive her faults in light of Seth's more pressing needs.

And then a panting and sweat drenched Leah was pushing her way back through into the room, a large syringe in her hand. It was none too soon, because Seth's breathing had grown so shallow that even Renesmee could barely hear it anymore. The humans were asked to leave the room, Sue forced this time for her safety, and Collin and Quil took up positions on Seth's arms, Sam and Paul on Seth's legs. For a moment Carlisle paused, then he looked at Renesmee as she began to slip out of the room after the other imprints.

"Nessie," Carlisle said softly. "Even if this works, Seth will be in an enormous amount of pain. Your gift may be able to help him. Do you feel like you can stay?"

She thought about it, because Renesmee always made sure to think about what she was doing, and then she nodded. "Yes, Grandpa," Renesmee said, trying to be as brave as she could, and as she climbed up on the bed by Seth's head, Paul gave her an approving look.

"You're a good kid, Nessie," Paul said quietly. "We're all very proud of you." And that was enough to make her smile a little and steel her resolve.

It was a good thing, because when her grandfather emptied the first half of the adrenaline shot inside Seth's torn chest, the Beta jerked upwards against all five of them, letting out a cry of agony as the shot woke him up and left him vulnerable to his injuries.

"Hold him!" Carlisle yelled as Seth twisted with more strength than Renesmee would have thought possible, "Get something between his teeth!"

This time it was Brady who stuffed his hand in Seth's mouth, and Renesmee watched, horrified, as the flesh in front of her began to writhe and heal, causing the Beta to scream around Brady's fingers at the pain. Like the previous time, his jerking was causing him to heal imperfectly, and Carlisle struggled to keep up with realigning Seth's healing insides.

"Renesmee, he needs your help," Carlisle reminded her, and Renesmee realized that she'd been staring. "Distract him, Ness, try to calm him down. His heart rate is too high."

Swallowing heavily, the little girl slid between the straining arms of the wolves holding Seth down, wedging herself near his face. The Beta's eyes were half-crazed from pain, but when she bent over him, placing her palm against his throat, Seth's gaze flickered her way. She tried to think about Seth, how much she loved him, how much she would miss him if something happened to him. She thought about his smile and his laughter and his jokes and his teasing-

"He's about to go into cardiac arrest," Carlisle muttered harshly, sounding upset, and this time the vampire openly cursed as Seth writhed again and caused Carlisle to nick one of Seth's veins. Then Jacob was there, massive arms pinning Seth down more completely where Collin and Quil had tried but failed.

"Come on, buddy," Jacob rumbled, holding onto Seth tightly. "Hang in there, Seth, we need you too much."

Seth's eyes flickered Jake's way, and Renesmee didn't know if it was helping the Beta, but Jacob's voice helped her. It helped her find a place of calm, and then Renesmee thought of the most calming thing she could think of.

Renesmee thought of the sky's tears.

The little girl would never be certain just what exactly of her thoughts that Seth saw, but Renesmee thought back to that day where she had sat on the porch with her wolf, and she thought about the big fat flakes of snow as they fell slowly to the ground. She thought of standing alone in the yard, face turned up to the soft grey sky, watching the sky's tears float slowly down to meet her eyelashes. She thought of one single snowflake, one lone tear, falling, falling, falling ever so slowly from the sky.

One small teardrop, one of many, but it was important, always so very important…

One small teardrop, soft and slow, slipping down to meet the earth that waited…

One small teardrop, touching the cool brown earth, resting peacefully…

Her grandfather's voice, calm and encouraging in her ears. "Yes, Nessie, that's it. That's helping, keep thinking whatever you're thinking of-"

She was thinking of the next teardrop, starting at the top of the heavens, sliding from the sky's face and gliding down, down, ever downwards…Seth's beautiful brown eyes were locked on her own, and he was watching her face, watching her as if trying to memorize her in that moment. Renesmee smiled at him and she thought about sweatshirts and football teams, and then the next snowflake, and then the next, and then the next. Each time her mind's eyes followed the gentle, peaceful path of the snowflakes through the skies, slowing it down even further.

And then Renesmee played pretend. She played pretend that both she and Seth were in the yard, not in this room. The young wolf was standing at her side, warm and brown and full of life, and his huge hand was clasped around her own. Together they looked up and watched the sky's tears slide from her downturned face and float down to land on their own, upturned ones. They were the earth, waiting, waiting, always waiting for when the sky needed them. And as Renesmee looked up at Seth, she smiled and pointed to the snow blanketed world around them.

The wolves had gathered, were resting quietly on their bellies in a loose circle about the pair, watching with calm, clear eyes. Her own wolf prowled a larger, protective circle around all of them, weaving in and out through the tree line like a brindled colored shadow, his paws silent even as they pressed into the tears on the ground. And by their feet, larger than life and massive in every sense of the word, a russet wolf lay waiting. Waiting for Seth, they were all waiting for Seth, but until he was ready, he and Renesmee would keep their faces raised. Would watch the tears swirling in the sky…

Would watch the slowly swirling tears…

Renesmee blinked, and then looked down. There was sweat dripping off of Seth's face, and his muscles were still straining beneath the Pack's hold, teeth still biting into Brady's hand so hard he was drawing blood. But Seth wasn't screaming anymore. Instead he was making a soft keening sound and watching her as if she was a lifeline to him right now. She was helping.

She was helping, she had a purpose and a place and a reason, and for the first time Renesmee felt something settle deep inside of her. She knew who she was in this moment. Right now _Renesmee_ was the one helping Seth. And even if that meant she wasn't unique, after all they were _all_ helping Seth, it made her equally important. She was important and she belonged, and confident in that knowledge, the little girl pressed her palm more securely against her Packmate's neck.

He had always talked about taking Renesmee to make sandcastles, and they had already stood in the snow today. So Renesmee smiled down at him, and making sure to think about a warm, sunny morning, and the ocean waves lapping gently at the shore, Renesmee walked hand in hand with Seth along the beach instead.

* * *

When Samantha came back to herself, she didn't know where she was. It was cool and it was dark and it was damp, all accept for one warm place that she was leaning against. It was a wolf, but Samantha recognized the scent even before she recognized the grey tail curling around her own. _Embry_. Embry was here. It was tempting to want to lean into him a little more.

Embry thought that if Samantha wanted to lean on him, then she should. He was her mate, and he was warm, and she was still shaking. How did she feel?

Samantha exhaled, and then did as Embry suggested, glad to keep her eyes closed as she shifted into his side. She could still see what he saw, but with her eyes closed, it didn't mesh uncomfortably with what she saw. All she saw was blackness. She didn't know how she felt, but she was glad that he was there. She…hurt. Did phasing always hurt like this?

Embry's thoughts were quiet for a moment, and she could feel him processing what he'd seen her go through. It was hard to watch his memories of her. As far as Embry could tell, she had phased wolf and back at least thirty times before she was able to stay in one form. Even with wolf healing, that was far too much strain on her body, and Embry had been scared for her. The last few hours had been better. Before her thoughts had been so scattered that he could barely understand his own, but she was more focused now. Sleeping had seemed to help her…

He was still thinking, but Samantha felt herself lose her concentration, felt herself swimming in an ocean of memories. Some of them were good, some of them were bad, and some of them were extremes. The day she had won an ice cream cone in elementary school. Calgary. The day she had been awarded her scholarship. Calgary. The day she had her first kiss, only hours after having been diagnosed with her mother's disease. Calgary. The day she kissed her mother's cold brow goodbye. Calgary. The day she met Embry. Cal…The day she met Embry. The day she met Embry. The day she met Embry…

Samantha's mind looped that memory over and over again, as if buffering her from getting lost inside of herself, in the darkness that was the worst times of her life. When her memories had stopped looping, after Embry had smiled at her for the first time more times than she could count, it was only then that she came back to herself, nose tucked beneath her own hip as she lay curled up in a tight ball.

Samantha shivered, more from the stress of this day than from anything else. She remembered a lot of things that she was trying very hard not to think about, but they kept slipping past her mental defenses. Embry thought that when it became hard for him to focus, he always thought about his brother. Their Alpha made it easier for him to concentrate, there was something reassuring about Jake, something that made Embry's confusion fade. Samantha decided that it was good advice, but if Embry didn't mind, she'd rather think about him instead.

A wet nose pressed against her neck and snuffed against her fur, her mate curling around her more completely. Embry never minded if she wanted to think about him, she was welcome to think about him as much as she wanted. And while she thought about him, Embry was going to focus on keeping them both warm and safe.

The she-wolf let out a contented sigh at that and then hunkered down more completely into his side. She wanted to know if Seth was better, but she wanted them to stay away from everyone else more, at least for a little while longer. Samantha was feeling…weaker than normal, and there was a deeply ingrained need for her to not show that weakness to her Pack or her Alpha.

It was because she was so dominant, Embry believed. Jake and Seth and Leah, even Paul were all the same way. Embry wanted to return to their Pack soon than later, because Embry was interested in eating the wolfborn whose throat Samantha had made into a chew toy. Samantha had a mental image of herself, small and compact, hanging off of the wolfborn's neck and giving him hell until the Pack managed to pull her away. There was pride in Embry's thoughts, but sadness too, and some hurt. He hadn't wanted this for her, had wished she'd given him a chance to help her make this decision. They were supposed to be a pair, a team, and she had left him behind today. That had…been upsetting.

Samantha whined unhappily and tried to lick Embry's muzzle in apology, but he just snuffed and pushed his thoughts away with much greater ease than she could do. Embry thought that they would deal with what this meant for them another day. Right now he was just happy she had stopped phasing. That had scared him.

The she-wolf shivered and flicked her ears back at the memory, putting her head down on her front paws. It had scared her too. Embry leaned his weight into her and he rested his nose over top of her neck. It was a comforting thing, and this time her thoughts only scattered for a few minutes before she pulled them back into place. The longer she stay wolf the easier it was becoming. Even her sight was better, less confusing from seeing through both his and her own eyes. Samantha knew this because she lazily opened one eye and checked what she could see. Yes, just the darkness of this little hiding hole Embry had taken her to, the damp rocks and tree roots that made up the sides and covering of the hole layered with a thin green moss, it wasn't nearly as confusing to look at and see, even if Embry was seeing the same thing from a slightly elevated angle.

The moss was green. Odd, Samantha had never thought about it before, but she had always just assumed the wolves were color blind in this form, like dogs were. Instead she could see better and further, but still in color, and she was able to tell the difference between her leg and the leg near hers, dark chocolate against grey.

Huh. Dark chocolate. She was the color of a candy bar, like she'd been dipped in the melted treat.

Embry seemed to find that amusing, and he licked her right ear playfully. Embry was pretty sure that when they dipped her, they missed a couple spots. Samantha saw through his eyes that inside her ears were a softer tan color, and her front right paw was the same. But Embry had already had enough time to decide that the very end of her tail was his favorite spot they had missed, his own tail thumping the ground lightly as he let his tongue loll out into a wolfish grin. Samantha stared at the tan tip of her tail in horror, deciding that they must have held onto it and her paw before dunking the rest of her, and that for a wolf she looked pretty silly.

Embry disagreed. He thought she was very beautiful actually, and he shifted closer to her. It was only then that she registered his paw size, and she opened both eyes just to make sure. Embry's paw was over twice as big as hers. In fact, his wolf form surrounded her easily as they lay curled together. His tail was longer, his hip was broader, and his muzzle, which now rested alongside hers, was bigger.

Samantha wanted to know just how _much_ bigger. Was she really that small?

The grey wolf licked her muzzle and then lazily wagged his tail, once, twice, three times. If Samantha wanted to know, she would have to come outside and see.

* * *

The wolfborn stared at Jack. Jack stared at the wolfborn. Neither side moved, except for small muscle shifts when the other side blinked.

They had been doing this for several hours now, and Jack knew better than to let his guard down even once. Keeping his thoughts to himself was easy, he had been doing so for many years, but these were wolfborn. They intuitively picked up on the slightest body language, and while they may not know what Jack was guarding from them, they knew that something of value to Jack was inside the house behind him. And because they were wolfborn, it meant that they were instantly curious and would brush aside Jake's orders to stay out here in the yard as if the Alpha's words meant nothing. That is, if Jack gave them the chance.

The wolfborn stared at Jack. Jack stared at the wolfborn, growling softly when one of them grinned.

"Tupkuk doesn't like it," the wolfborn said to his brother. "Should we take it back to Tupkuk for him to kill?"

"We could always kill it first and give that to Tupkuk as a gift," the other reminded the first. "That way we wouldn't have to carry it."

Both wolves tipped their heads to the side simultaneously and considered it. Unfortunately for them, Jack didn't have any plans on dying between their teeth today, and while the wolfborn were focused in only on him, the majority of Jack's Pack was gathered loosely behind him. No one trusted the wolfborn, and now that Seth was unconscious again, the adrenaline having run its course, no one wanted these two wolves anywhere near them.

The wolfborn had attacked their Alphas, and it didn't matter if the pair were only trying to be "helpful" in doing so. The truth of the matter was that they had come onto La Push land uninvited, had forced their ways into the Pack, and had turned on Jake and Sims. If it weren't for their strength bolstering Jake's, and in turn bolstering Seth's, the Pack would have already run them out of here by now. As Jack felt the place in the Pack that was Seth's begin to solidify and hold, their Beta was healing and that was the _best_ of things, Jack knew these wolves wouldn't be welcome long.

Jack had no problem letting his thoughts on _that_ matter slip through.

"It doesn't like us," the wolfborn murmured in unison.

"_It_ has a name," Collin snarled angrily, and if it wasn't for Paul's hand on his shoulder, Collin would have stepped forward. But Paul had the pup on a tight leash right now, and that was smart. Paul knew exactly how dangerous these wolfborn could be.

"_Kadidu_," the more dominant wolfborn agreed pleasantly. "We know its name."

Kadidu. Dog. One that follows blindly at the heels of its masters. For the wolf who knew no master but the Alpha and the Pack, there was no greater insult, but as always, Jack let that insult roll down his skin and tried not to let it sink in too deeply. He had grown used to it after so much time. After all, it was Tupkuk who had coined that phrase. So Jack said nothing, even though on some level deep inside it was beginning to make him angry.

Good, T'sikáti decided. It was about time Jack became angry. It was about time that Jack felt anything besides guilt and overwhelming regret. Jack tried to cover the conversation, but the wolfborn noticed, blinking in interest.

"It has been outcast for too long and loses its mind," the more submissive of the pair decided, looking as if he was growing bored. "That makes it less fun to kill."

"When it heals, we'll have to see," the other nodded, and Paul let out his own snarl now, echoed by Sam and Quil. Paul strode up to where Jack crouched on his heels in the snow, watching the wolfborn with half lidded eyes. Immediately they turned their attention to Paul, and Jack growled to bring them back his way. Paul's hand came down to rest on his shoulder, and Paul frowned. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Jake striding out of the house, Leah at his heels. She looked nearly ill with sheer relief, but Jacob just looked pissed.

"Seth's going to be okay," Jacob told his Pack in a hard voice. "Sims is boosting me enough for him to finish healing, and he's getting better as we speak. Anyone object to these two assholes getting thrown out of here by their tails?"

Silence. No one objected in the least, even if Brady was the only one that spoke. "We could just kill them instead," Brady suggested in a low snarl, staring at the wolfborn with open hatred in his eyes. Jake slanted a look Brady's way, and then turned back to the wolfborn, who seemed completely unworried. Jack, however, tensed. If the wolfborn were actually trying to fight, this could turn ugly and he would be very much needed.

"No, they helped us save Seth," Jake said firmly, but his voice was still full of barely contained anger as he stared down the twins. "You both also drew blood on my imprint, and it doesn't matter if you were trying to be _helpful_ in that as well. You came into my territory-"

"We didn't kill the ones guarding the borders, though," the more submissive wolfborn reminded Jake proudly, as if that was something of great note. And Jack realized that for these two, perhaps it was. Under Tupkuk's guidance, they would have been encouraged to kill every vampire they came across. Jake was having none of that, and the Alpha bowed up in fury, his patience and his temper completely shot.

"_**My territory!**_" Jake roared, causing the whole Pack to flinch away. His voice lowered to a deep and dangerous snarl. "Your Alpha sent you into _my_ territory, and you turned on myself and _my_ imprint. Get off my land before we kill you both, and tell your old Alpha that I claim fault with him."

Jack frowned at that, but bowed his head beneath the pressure of the Alpha's anger. It was his Alpha's right to claim fault over an imprint, and if Tupkuk had any honor left, he would be forced to acknowledge that fault. Jack knew how badly his Alpha wanted to build better relations between the Packs, but at the moment, Jake was incensed and beyond reason. He was only Alpha and angry and that meant that all needed to listen. Wolfborn, however, were not particularly good listeners.

The more dominant wolfborn frowned, and he gave Jake cool look. "It was painful for our previous Alpha to have us leave his Pack, if only temporarily. He willingly did this as a kindness to you, Alpha."

"If he had _warned_ me what he was intending," Jake snapped back, "If you two hadn't _forced_ the issue, my imprint wouldn't have had to do this. It was supposed to be _her_ choice and you two fuckers took that away."

The second wolfborn was watching the trees, one ear perked in interest, but the first one narrowed his eyes at Jake and said, "It is not our previous Alpha's fault if you can't keep your wolves from dying, Alpha, and it is not his fault if your women are too weak to phase."

"Wanna say that again, asshole?" Leah growled, but her growl was echoed by a second, lower one, and then a third and even softer one. Everyone turned and saw two shapes standing in the shadows of the trees, and then Jake was striding forward. Jack and Paul were on his heels, Leah barely a half step behind, with the others shifting forward to get ready.

The wolfborn continued to regard the Alpha as Jake stuck his face in the more dominant one's face, glowering down at him. "_Get off my land_."

For a moment Jack wondered if for the fun of it that the wolfborn would insist on staying. Wolfborn could choose their own Alphas, and Jack was pretty sure that even Jake couldn't force them out of the Pack unless they were interested in leaving. But the pair's faces both seemed to go bland with disinterest, and with that they left the Pack. It was a much of a letdown when they left as it had been a surge of strength when they joined, but it was with relief that Jack felt his Packmates all rearrange themselves back into a more comfortable state. It had felt far too strange to have Paul get bumped by the two wolfborn down into a lower Pack position than their Third.

Quil showed obvious annoyance when Collin settled into Pack rank one above him, but the broad shouldered wolf should have expected it, Jack thought. At some point, Collin would outrank most of them all.

The wolfborn gave Leah twin smirks before slipping away into the woods, and Jake pulled out his cell phone. "Edward? You've got two wolves coming your way that slipped past you guys onto the rez…no, just give them space. These two are bad news, just let them through…She's fine. She actually helped us more than you would believe. When she wakes up, I'll have Jack take her home…Yeah, she's had a long day."

Jack had backed off to the side and like the others, he was peering with interest into the woods, where their newest sister was still deep in shadow and hidden behind her selected mate. The Alpha hung up the phone and exhaled heavily, rubbing his eyes wearily. Jake was exhausted, and when Leah wrapped her arms around his waist, the Alpha folded her up into his chest and rested his chin on top of her head.

"He's okay, Lee-lee," Jake promised, holding her tight and saying the words as if he needed to hear them too. "Seth's okay." Leah nodded and Jack could see her fighting her emotions. Their she-wolf was not the type to break down and cry from relief. Instead she leaned against Jake for as long as she felt didn't make her appear weak, and then she straightened.

"But is _she_ okay?" Leah asked in a worried voice, pulling away from Jake and looking out into the woods. "Samantha?"

There was a snuffing noise in the woods, and Leah started walking slowly towards the trees, knowing that Embry and Sims couldn't risk coming out into the open this close to town. Jake walked with her, his face stained.

"It took Samantha about two hours to stop phasing completely," Jake told Leah, shaking his head. "It was like her body couldn't hold itself to one form or the other, and it made her unable to focus and function the way we can. I don't know if it will always be like that. If it is…we'll have to figure out how to make it easier on her. Sleeping it off and holing up for a while with Embry seemed to help, but I'm keeping her off patrols for now until we figure out how to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm worried about her trying to phase back and it starting all over again. Lee-lee…"

Jake's question was silent, but Leah was already nodding. "I'll help her," Leah said, her voice rough to cover her emotions. "She did this for Seth, Jake. Of course I'll help her."

The Pack trailed behind the Alpha and the she-wolf, and Jack couldn't help looking curiously as a lanky grey wolf with black spots on his back stepped out of the denser trees. Embry's body language was stiffened at first, but not overly so, merely posturing for them to see that he was feeling protective of what was behind him. Jake dropped down to his heels, with the rest of them except for Leah following suit, and Embry's tail began to wag. He made an encouraging whining noise, and Jack couldn't help grinning when a nose poked out from beneath Embry's neck, a pair of dark eyes gazing at them suspiciously.

She was by far the smallest Tlokwali that Jack had ever seen.

"Oh my god, she's so _cute_!" Collin couldn't help saying, and then he winced as Paul thumped him on the back of the head. "What did I say?"

"Shuddup, pup," Paul grunted, but Jack could see a grin playing about Paul's own lips. It was a good day indeed when they gained a sister, and even the serious Third started chuckling. "It's not her fault she's a midget."

A soft low growl rolled from behind Embry, and the grey wolf looked amused even as he held his place. Embry wasn't going to move until Sims was ready, and Jake rumbled out a laugh. "If you're going to growl at us, Apple Girl, at least do it from where we can see you," Jake teased kindly, affection filling his voice.

No one knew what would have happened if their Alpha's imprint hadn't made the sacrifice that she had made, but considering that Carlisle had to fight so hard to save Seth despite her and both the wolfborn, Jack was pretty certain that without her, the Beta wouldn't have made it. Her willingness to accept them, to become one of them, to save one of them, rolled through the Pack and made them feel deeply proud of their newest sister.

Jack didn't realize that he was making a soft crooning noise in his throat, encouraging her to come out to them, but he did notice when several of the others began doing the same. Finally Embry wagged his tail harder and turned, the chocolate colored she-wolf tight against his side as she continued to growl, her ears flattened defensively and her legs stiff. The dark hair on the back of her neck was bristling in a way that was supposed to be threatening, but the she-wolf's back barely came halfway up Embry's side and in being half his size, there was only one way to describe her. She was just—

"Okay, but really, Paul. Look at her paw! She's so _cute_!"

Paul thumped Collin again, and someone snickered when the pup winced a second time. Offended, Sims wrinkled her teeth back from her lips and she began stalking towards Collin. He grinned at her, as if not worried in the least that she was snarling as she walked right up to him, or that her teeth had already cut wolf flesh that day. Human nose to wolf nose, she continued to growl at him, and Collin tried desperately to force the smile off his face as he lowered his eyes to the ground submissively. He was failing horribly.

"It's okay to eat him, Sims," Brady suddenly said with his own tiny smile, the first one they'd seen from him in a long time. "That's what Collin's here for."

She batted her lighter colored paw into his chest and then shoved into him, forcing Collin onto his back in the snow. Realizing that he may be in trouble, Collin glanced to Jake for help, but the Alpha was grinning openly as Sims stepped up onto Collin's chest and put her teeth on either side of his neck, still growling loudly.

"Ahh…" Collin said, casting around for what to do, "On second thought, cute might have been the wrong term. How about scary? Look at how scary Sims is?" he tried and Sims snapped her teeth in his face. Collin yelped and then tried to flatten himself out more. "Oh shit, she's going to eat me. Paul! You're not really going to let her eat me, are you?"

"I'm considering it," Paul murmured placidly. "Better think of something quick, pup."

"Ahh! Sims, I'm _so_ sorry I called you cute when you're actually completely terrifying and I still have to apologize to Jack and hook up with triplets and I've never had lobster so please don't eat me. _Please_."

Apparently that was good enough for her, because the she-wolf allowed her lips to cover her teeth, and she sat down and made herself comfortable, still perched up on Collin's torso. Despite her confident body language, Jack could see that she was shaken from her experience that day, and her muscles were trembling slightly from nerves. Jack went to move to her instinctively, but Embry beat him to it. Embry padded up and pressed his shoulder against Sims', and when he began licking her ears, the she-wolf looked happier that he was doing so. Embry eyed Jake when the Alpha rose to his feet, gave a warning huff, and then he sat back on his haunches and watched protectively as one after another they approached her. She knew them already, but her nose would be more sensitive now, and it was better to let her get to know them again by letting her snuff their fingers and throats to get their scents, starting with the Alpha and Leah and moving down in rank.

By her posture, it was clear that she wasn't ready for them to touch her yet, but their older she-wolf pressed her nose to the younger she-wolf's and kept it there, the two breathing the same air for one breath, two breathes, three, before Leah finally pulled away with tears in her eyes. It had been hard for their she-wolf to be alone. Another sister had been a long time in coming.

Last in line, Jack waited patiently until it was his turn, and when he approached her, he did so with a soft smile and his head tilted, his throat exposed to her. And when Sims sniffed his pulse point, Jack realized that he was nearly thrumming in excitement. Another wolf, another one of his Pack that he could run with and belong with. It was a very important thing to him, more important than any of them probably realized. As an Alpha type dominance wise, he might belong to her as did the rest of the Pack, but that didn't mean she didn't also belong to him. To them. Their Pack. Their Pack was growing, their Alpha was stronger, and that made Jack feel better than he had in a long, long time.

And then something very good happened, something that rolled through the Pack and caused Embry to raise his muzzle, letting his song carry up into the sky. Still seated on top of Collin, their newest she-wolf raised her muzzle and echoing her chosen mate, Sims did the same.

* * *

Renesmee didn't remember it happening, but somewhere between walking hand in hand with Seth through the Louvre and picnicking on the green grasses beneath the shades of Trolleholm Castle, the little girl fell asleep. She dreamed of him taking _her_ places this time, all the places he had always wanted to go to, and when they were tired of exploring, she dreamed of curling up by a sandy colored wolf's side, her head on his ribcage and his nose touching her bare toes. Every time he snuffed out a wet breath she giggled because it tickled her, and Renesmee woke up giggling, her hand still on Seth's neck.

Warm brown eyes were watching her. Seth. It was _Seth_, and even if he still looked pale and drawn, the worst of the terrible wound down his torso was closed, with only a deep, raw gash remaining. Relief filled her so completely that it brought tears to her eyes. Renesmee tried to hold them in, but the Beta covered her little hand with his own huge one and gave her that beautiful smile of his.

"Hey, Curlie-Q," Seth said quietly, his voice roughened but still his, teasing and gentle. Still the voice she had needed so _badly_ to hear. Seth's smile grew and he brought her palm to his face, kissing it briefly with dry, warm lips before letting go. Seth reached over and weakly tugged one of her bronze curls, giving her a little wink. "I like your sweatshirt, Nessie."

Renesmee's answering smile was like the sun.

* * *

The blue-eyed child stood on the railing, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she balanced easily.

Hidden deep in the Smoky Mountain chain, the massive pine wood lodge was built into the side of the steep, blue green slopes, overlooking miles of forests. A light dusting of snow lined the porch and the railing, the only amount to come that year. The little girl caught a snowflake on her finger, watching it melt away.

"Laká," a deep voice said rumbled from behind her, chastising despite his distraction. "Come away from there. You'll break your neck." The little girl looked down, down the three stories of balconies below her, down the mountainside, down down to the tiny specks of grey by the river below. Boulders the size of pickup trucks, but no bigger than her pinkie nail from when she stood. "Laká_, now_."

"Yes, father," the young female wolfborn agreed, gazing with bright blue eyes across the landscape. Then she glanced over her shoulder at her Alpha, and after bouncing one last time as she looked to the west, Laká climbed down. "The fun part was over anyways."


	15. Chapter 13

**A/N** Hi! This chapter is short, and it will make sense why when you read it. Fair **warning**, almost this entire thing is **OC Packs** or **Old Pack scenes**. If you skim the Old Pack scenes in a normal chapter, I would say to not read and wait for the next chapter, which should be out in only a couple days. Thanks as always to my reviewers: _t(dot)bairdy, cylobaby, Aleena Kiwiana, HopefulHeartache, MadToTheBone1, Buffyk0604, Britt01, shelbron, Maximus05, lionandthelamblove7, KerryH, Jessica1018, lilred-07, scrapalicious, The all mighty and powerfulM, 82c10akaLynn, talmida, moani-sama, WorldsAngel, SARAH DB, Alpha Mingan, hilja, QahlanKwaiya, Margottenser, laurazuleta18, Faerie Soul, TheNotoriousLIP, chicadee74, wrhayter, hefors, Gryffindor Gurl2, LucyPenny, _and_ Rissa Winchester_. Also a big thanks to LIP and SL for helping me with all the plot hunting!

Thunderbird and Raven are Quileute legend, everything else is my own. Any literary license taken is meant with the utmost respect to the Quileute Nation, and offensive material will be removed immediately.

_*Kalíso_ means "brown", _Liyáť_ means "otter", _Chibód_ means "fishhook"

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Thirteen

The Andes Mountains loomed high in the night sky, the moonlight reflecting off of the white-capped peaks.

Deep in the southern Argentina countryside, a young wolf leaned his back against one of the only trees he had seen for miles, growing only because of the large lake that his Pack had chosen to camp against that night. It was dangerous, their enemy had a particular fondness for using the water, but they had come down from the mountains just yesterday, two wolves lighter than when they had gone up, and those that were still injured were old enough to find solace from the soft slap of waves against the shore. Despite being the warmer season, this far south the air was cool, made cooler by the heavy winds that constantly blew across the arid steppe. Hot or cold, it didn't matter, they would still follow their prey over the land as it led them. Even now several of the Pack prowled the area encircling the campsite, hunting that which so easily slipped out from beneath their teeth.

Two hundred years and they hadn't taken their enemy yet. Yawning as he stretched sore, tired muscles, Taye figured that tonight wouldn't go any differently.

The Pack moved around a lot, never sleeping in the same place for more than a month or two. Inconvenient, yes, but necessary if they wanted to stay the hunters and not become the hunted. It was safer this way, although safe wasn't exactly a word that the young wolf would use in regards to any of them. The training, the fighting, the dying, it had left them all with a hardness that was visible in their faces, in their eyes and in the way that they were growing increasingly unable to stay in the towns and cities without causing trouble. There were soft beds and warm food not very far away, but the Alpha had wanted them to stay here. And what the Alpha wanted was what they all did.

Taye was starting to realize that he was one of the few that didn't particularly care what the Alpha wanted, but Taye wasn't strong enough to do anything about it yet. Maybe one day, but right now he'd take the food he was given, meager fare that it was, and he would close his eyes, and he would rest against his tree. Taye had earned a busted lip and a bruise across his temple in securing it, but now it was _his_ tree and hell if it didn't stay that way.

The Alpha was quiet, the way he always was when they lost Packmates during their hunts, his eyes tired and his expression drained. The wolves had built a small fire near the shore, had placed their injured closest to it for the illusion of protection and warmth, and they had gathered around with similar looks of exhaustion and silent mourning for their lost brothers. Finally the Alpha sighed and looked up at his wolves. "Taye and I will take the first watches," he said wearily. "Sleep, brothers. Tomorrow will be a new day."

The wolves shifted, their silence movement betraying their unhappiness at that. Off in the darkness, the flickering of the flames played across Taye's scarred skin, proof that he himself had almost lost his life only weeks prior. The youth kept his place but turned his head enough to the side to address his Alpha.

"Tell them their stories, Kalísoliyáť," Taye grunted, his voice rumbling as it deepened into a growl. "Remind them why we stay in this place. They need to hear why they die for you."

The Alpha smiled slightly, the same firelight reflecting in his eyes. Even Kalísoliyáť had not escaped from the mountains unscathed, and he stretched a sore shoulder as he looked Taye's way, where the youth sat in a semblance of solitude apart from the others.

"And you do not, little brother?" the Alpha asked, sounding amused, but Taye ignored the question, having said all that he was intending to say. However, the Alpha must have agreed with Taye's assessment of his wolves' state of being, because after a few moments of gazing at them, the Alpha sat up straighter. Hard, tightly muscled limbs began to relax as the Alpha's eyes gazing into the fire before him, battle scarred hands resting easily on his thighs.

"Then if it is needed, I will tell our tales again," the Alpha murmured quietly. "I will finish the tale of _Qa'al the Betrayer_. It is appropriate for this night, I believe."

Taye opened his eyes and stared at the world around him, refusing to look north to where that young Alpha was still pulling at them all, Taye refusing to succumb to that seductive need to fight free of this Pack and run to where he wanted to be. Like it or not Taye was right where he _needed_ to be. Looking down at his slightly shaking hands, Taye decided that maybe the Alpha was right. Maybe Taye too needed to remember why they fought and they died. It had been a bad few days up in those mountains. A very bad few days.

As his eyes swept the peaks to the west, watching, watching, ever watching the darkness, the Alpha's voice rolled soothingly over his senses.

"It is said that after Qa'al climbed Thunderbird's mountain, risking the great bird's wrath at the Kwòlíyoť," the Alpha told them, his words quieting beneath the cry of the sweeping winds. "That the spirits grew worried…"

_It is said that after Qa'al climbed Thunderbird's mountain, risking the great bird's wrath at the Kwòlíyoť, that the spirits grew worried at Qa'al's indifference to his people. The spirits searched the land until they found Bear, who had been sleeping peacefully since the fall. Go, Bear, the spirits pleaded, go and speak to Thunderbird. Go and convince Thunderbird that Qa'al should come down from the mountain and return to the Kwòlíyoť and live as the spirits have intended. _

_Bear grew angry at being awoken and he opened his jaws, swallowing the spirits as easily as he would have swallowed a salmon, but the spirits continued to beg and plead with Bear, even from deep within his belly. "Go, Bear", they told him incessantly. "Go and speak to Thunderbird." _

_Finally tired of his aching, rumbling belly, Bear went in search of Thunderbird, but on his way up the mountain, Bear saw Raven perched beside a rock, sharpening his talons on his beak. Bear snuck upon Raven and caught Raven beneath his heavy paw._

_"Raven," said Bear. "My belly is grumbling that I should go speak to Thunderbird about Qa'al. I will not eat you if you do this thing for me."_

_"I will do this thing," Raven promised, glad to not be eaten, and Bear emptied his grumbling stomach, and he let the spirits tell Raven what they had told Bear. Content with his part in the matter, Bear went back to his napping in peace. _

_So Raven flew up to the mountain, where he found Thunderbird. Thunderbird asked why Raven had flown all the way up to the top of the mountain, but Raven was ever the Trickster, and he snuck close to Thunderbird and whispered in the great bird's ear. Raven told Thunderbird that the Kwòlíyoť people had sent Qa'al up on top of the mountain to see if Thunderbird would share his mountain, as Thunderbird had once shared a great whale to fill their bellies. Angered by their boldness, Thunderbird leapt into the sky, his massive wings beating the air into mighty gusts of wind as he flew across the land and over the water._

_Back and forth Thunderbird flew, until a great storm blew off of the ocean, freezing the Kwòlíyoť people. Content with his own part in the matter, Raven went back to his rock and he continued sharpening his talons in peace. _

_At the base of Thunderbird's mountain, the Alpha T'sikáti watched the growing storm unhappily, for T'sikáti knew that Qa'al had not returned from the mountaintop, and that Qa'al's mind was silent in a way that kept T'sikáti from knowing his thoughts or warning Qa'al of the storm that approached. The Alpha did not know what Qa'al had found up on the mountaintop, nor why Qa'al would not speak to him, but T'sikáti had promised to not follow Qa'al any further than he had. For twenty days, T'sikáti paced the mountain, his howls joining the wind as he begged for Qa'al to speak to him, or to allow him to break his word and come to where Qa'al stayed._

_On the twenty-first day, Qa'al's voice finally whispered into T'sikáti's mind that Qa'al's woman and child were dead, that a Cold One was the cause, and for T'sikáti to return to their people. In time, Qa'al would do the same. _

_Miserably, the great Alpha returned to the Kwòlíyoť, and as always he hunted and he sheltered them as best as he was able, until Thunderbird grew tired of flying and returned to rest upon the mountain. There was happiness in the Kwòlíyoť that the storm had abated, but those who were Tlokwali saw a great sadness inside T'sikáti. For over five-hundred passings of the seasons, where the fish went there had always been a fishhook in his footsteps, and it wounded T'sikáti deeply that the fishhook refused to let the fish share in its pain._

_It is said that the half-Makah youth Tupkuk took the news of his sister's death badly, and after raging for three days and nights in grief, Tupkuk begged and pleaded with T'sikáti to allow him to go to Qa'al. In Tupkuk's heart, his only family had been his sister and Qa'al, and it hurt Tupkuk to think that Qa'al mourned alone. But T'sikáti held true to Qa'al's wishes, and the pup suffered much at T'sikáti's firm refusal. However the Alpha allowed for Tupkuk to remain in the longhouse that T'sikáti shared with Qa'al, and both wolves waited silently for another twenty-one days, when Qa'al finally appeared at the edge of the village._

_One look at him and the Tlokwali knew that their Qa'al was not the same. _

_It is said that when Qa'al returned to the Kwòlíyoť that he was sickened, his body weak as if he had taken little nourishment since he had left T'sikáti on the mountainside. His eyes were tired and filled with the grief of loss, which was to be expected, but to their confusion Qa'al's body was covered with the scent of the Cold Ones. It was more than any of them had ever smelled on anything which was not a Cold One itself, and even T'sikáti was taken aback by this. Qa'al's movements were jerky, as if his body was sore, and his arms were covered with the markings of deep wounds that had recently healed. He swayed weakly on his feet, the way a warrior surviving a spear wound often did when dizzy from blood loss. _

_"Qa'al?" T'sikáti asked quietly as Qa'al walked through the village, the Alpha joining at his side and gesturing for the others to fall back and give them space. "Old friend, what has happened?" When T'sikáti reached out a hand to press it against Qa'al's shoulder, it was with shock that the Tlokwali saw Qa'al flinch away. _

_"There is something that I must do, Alpha," Qa'al whispered, ignoring the question as he pulled away from T'sikáti, and beneath the scent of the Cold Ones their Qa'al smelled deeply of both anger and shame. "I would wish it if you would come with me." _

_Silently the Alpha nodded, the fish for once following at the heels of the fishhook as they left the Tlokwali on the mainland. Together they swam to the island of A-Ka-Lat, the source of the spiritual powers of the Kwòlíyoť, and where they would bury the most important of their dead. For nearly a day, both Qa'al and T'sikáti stayed upon A-Ka-Lat, and often sharp Tlokwali ears caught the sounds of crashing boulders and the death songs of their people echoing on the wind. _

_No one knew why Qa'al returned alone from A-Ka-Lat, or why T'sikáti chose to remain, his sandy colored wolf form pacing the highest ridges of the island, his muzzle raised as he sang out his songs to the sky. However their Alpha's overwhelming sadness rolled though the Tlokwali and left them on their knees from it, lost as they shared T'sikáti's despair, with only the Beta able to keep his feet beneath them. As Qa'al emerged from the waters, the Beta went to meet him, Tupkuk trying and failing to do the same._

_"Qa'al, what has happened?" the Beta asked, insistent as he reached to grip Qa'al's shoulder, holding on where T'sikáti had allowed Qa'al to move away. "T'sikáti won't tell me anything."_

_"There is nothing to tell," Qa'al said exhaustedly, his brown eyes downcast. "I'm leaving the Tlokwali as I had planned, brother, but I will not stay here. I will travel beyond the lands of the Hoh, and I wish to be left there in peace. Our Alpha has agreed." The Beta's shock showed on his face, and he reached for Qa'al again, but this time Qa'al shifted away from him. "I wish to be left in peace," Qa'al growled, voice strong despite his weakened state._

_The Beta's snarl was equally strong, and he stepped closer to Qa'al, using the weight of his command on the older wolf as no one but T'sikáti had ever dared to do. "You will __**stay**__, Qa'al, and you will answer what I ask of you! Why are you abandoning us? The Qa'al that I knew-"_

_Qa'al's eyes flashed angrily and he raised his chin, not shrinking beneath the weight of the orders upon him. "The Qa'al you knew is gone, brother, and I have no time to quarrel with you. Leave me alone, for there is somewhere I must be."_

_"Why do you smell so of Cold Ones?" the Beta demanded, his eyes narrowed as he tried to understand that which his leaders were keeping from him. "It is etched into your skin, Qa'al, as if you had lain with one," When the Beta added those words, from behind him Tupkuk snarled furiously. It was perhaps meant as an insult, to goad Qa'al into speaking the truth, for they all knew that the Beta might be stronger than Qa'al, but only because it had contented Qa'al for that to be true. However instead of anger, Qa'al flinched as if struck, and their nostrils were filled with his shame. _

_His shame, as if these words, these awful words were the truth._

_Confused and uncertain, the Beta took a step back from Qa'al. "Brother? I…I don't understand." None of them did, none of them could understand how their Qa'al, so very beloved by their people, could have done such a thing. As T'sikáti's pain kept the rest of them on their knees, Tupkuk raised disbelieving eyes to the Beta._

_"You are wrong," Tupkuk forced from between gritted teeth, daring to defy one so much higher than him to protect Qa'al's honor. "You are __**wrong**__."_

_At the sound of Tupkuk's voice, Qa'al's face fell, and he bowed his head, fists clenched at his sides. When he finally raised it again, it was to Tupkuk that Qa'al spoke. "Forgive me, brother," Qa'al whispered brokenly. "But I loved them so much… I loved her so much. She says that she is still her, and I…I can't…"_

_They never would know what it was that Qa'al could not do. Instead there was a piercing howl of warning from T'sikáti, who from his place high upon A-Ka-Lat could smell what had happened on the wind. And then a scream, followed by the scent of blood. So much blood. And then another scream, this one of terrible pain. _

_The Beta swung around and saw a figure at the far edge of the woods, blood on her hands and her arms and her face. It was Tuktukadi, her eyes huge as she stood holding onto a thrashing she-wolf's arm, a she-wolf who had been bitten and was now at Tuktukadi's feet, writhing in agony as the Cold One's poison swept through wolf veins. _

_It was the Beta's she-wolf, the one that shared his bed at night, the one that he cared for more than any of the others in the Tlokwali. _

_"Qa'al, she attacked me," Tuktukadi whispered, looking horrified with herself. "I just wanted to say goodbye to my brother, but she attacked me. Qa'al, __**I didn't mean it**__…"_

_She might not have meant it, but it was too late... _

"But it was too late," the Alpha said, his voice breaking as his words trailed off.

Taye jerked, realizing that his eyes had been closed as he listened to the story, and he silently chastised himself, knowing that it could mean death to drift off when one was supposed to be awake. Just because the Alpha was telling the stories of their people didn't mean that the Alpha wasn't paying attention to the rest of the world around them, and he had designated himself and Taye to be on watch.

Grimacing and knowing that his tree was seductive in its solitude, the young wolf rose to his feet.

Eyes tracked his movements, but not as many as should have noticed. As it always happened, some of those that should have been keeping aware of their surroundings were lost in the telling, their heads bowed or their eyes staring into the flames. Hearing things that Taye had never heard. Seeing things that Taye had never seen. Living lives that Taye had never lived. These were older wolves, harder wolves, if only a few were dominant ones like the Alpha. There were only a couple of them that hadn't experienced the events that the Alpha was talking about, sons of the wolves that sat at this fire, sons of the ones that once sat here and now lay dead at the enemy's feet. Taye was sure that there was much lost in his not having been there, but he could feel the emotions rolling through his Alpha and carrying down through the Pack.

Anger.

Betrayal.

Loathing.

Taye wondered at that, wondered what it would be like to be so angry at someone that his anger stretched over centuries. His own anger was deeply rooted and burned brightly every day, but that kind of anger seemed unfathomable. However these men, these wolves, and shown him that there was a lot out there that he needed to get used to. Apparently hundreds of years of hatred was one of those things.

"Keep telling the story," Taye said in a hard voice, staring at a wolf nearly as old as the Alpha until that wolf flushed and moved, making room in the circle for Taye directly across from the Alpha. The Alpha leveled a look at the young wolf that made the closest Packmates to Taye cringe, but Taye merely held the Alpha's gaze one full, hard moment before flicking his eyes sideways. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Every day. Every day Taye tested him, tested to see if he could break this Alpha's control and be on his way, but every day this Alpha made him stay.

"You are bold, little brother," the Alpha said, a smile playing over his lips. "But even the bold pup knows when to lie on his belly and to close his snapping jaws."

"Sit down and shut up?" Taye raised an eyebrow, and the Alpha grinned, his teeth showing in an almost feral smirk. It was the same look the Alpha had when he hunted, and it was when the Alpha hunted that he was the most dangerous. So Taye sat and he shut up, but he did so slowly. There was a voice inside his head that told him this was their way. Once Taye had made himself comfortable, the Alpha relaxed slightly, his shoulders drooping as he once again addressed his Pack.

"Taye is right. This is our story, the beginning of the fall of the Tlokwali. This is the story of Qa'al the Betrayer, and it is his story that causes us to sit where we are today. We have lost brothers these last few days, so I need to ask. Is there any that cannot hear this tonight?"

No one spoke, so the Alpha nodded and bowed his head.

"Then as I said before, it was too late…"

_It was too late, far too late. _

_The Beta looked upon his she-wolf, looked at the painful way her limbs convulsed, and he knew that she was beyond their help. With a cry the Beta lunged for the woman who was once of the Tlokwali, the sister of their brother and the slave of their Alpha. The woman Qa'al had so desperately loved. But she was of the Tlokwali no longer. Tuktukadi was a Cold One and her place among them was gone, and even if she had not killed the she-wolf, it would have still been the same. And perhaps it is that which had broken the heart of T'sikáti, knowing that Qa'al had chosen their enemy over lifetimes of friendship, or perhaps it was that Qa'al would have to choose at all which had given their Alpha so much pain. Either way, when the Beta moved, the others went to do the same._

_"__**No!**__" Qa'al roared, his voice ringing with command the way that they had never heard from him, freezing their limbs for the briefest of moments. "No, do not follow!" _

_"Qa'al!" The Cold One that had once been Qa'al's lover cried out in fear as the Beta's wolf form plunged at her, and with a cry of his own, Qa'al flung himself after the Beta. _

_"Tuktukadi, run!" were the last words that the brindle wolf ever spoke as their Qa'al, and even as T'sikáti dove into the ocean, the fish swimming as fast as he could towards the fishhook, it was too late. The Beta was enraged, and in the moment that the she-wolf died, the Tlokwali feeling her presence stripped away from them, the Beta lost all semblance of control. _

_With a bellow of fury, the Beta ordered the Tlokwali to kill the Cold One, to tear her limb from limb and to burn every piece. _

_The Cold One that was now Tuktukadi was fast, but the Beta was faster still, and even as she streaked through the trees she could not outrun the wolf at her heels. She cried out Qa'al's name again, feeling the hot breath of the Beta upon her neck, and in fear she tripped on the ground beneath her. With a snarl of triumph, the Beta fell upon her savagely, but even as his jaws went to close about her neck, Qa'al's brindled wolf form was there. Teeth meant to rend cold hard flesh sliced through hot soft muscle instead, and as the Beta slammed into the body of the wolf overtop Tuktukadi, they both went down in a mass of claw and fang. _

_For a moment Tuktukadi watched, her red eyes full of horror as she saw Qa'al fighting to protect her, and she took a step forward towards him. But then she lifted her gaze beyond the wolves as she saw the rest of the Tlokwali converging upon her. _

_It is said that as a woman, Tuktukadi had been strong and brave, her fire unquenchable and her temper only satiated beneath the love and the attention of their Qa'al. What she was as a Cold One? No one but Qa'al would ever know, but it is said that the Cold One gave Qa'al one last look of regret before turning and fleeing towards the south, towards the land of the Hoh peoples, or perhaps further still. _

_The Beta was strong, larger and heavier than Qa'al, but Qa'al was faster and a more skilled fighter. Every time the Beta fought his way past Qa'al, the brindled wolf took him back to ground, and as the Alpha roared into all of their heads to stop this madness, the Beta finally struck at Qa'al in a way meant to damage, his fangs slicing dangerously close to Qa'al's left eye. Half blinded, Qa'al saw the Tlokwali pour past him in pursuit of his lover, and they could hear his fear for her tear through the guards that protected his thoughts from their minds._

_They saw her on a mountainside, her ice cold arms around him as Qa'al knelt in the snow, sobbing against her stomach. _

_They saw her draw him into the protection of a shallow rocky fissure, on her knees now as she begged him to listen to her, that she was still who she had always been. That she was trying not to kill, trying to be strong enough to approach him again, to prove herself to him._

_They saw her pull a devastated Qa'al deeper into her arms, promising that she loved him, Qa'al weeping even as he took his lover, trying desperately to find something of what she had once been to hold on to. _

_They saw him slice his own flesh to feed her because she was starving, they saw him promise to take her far away, where she would be safe, where this time he would make sure that she was safe…_

_They saw the Beta leap past Qa'al, the Beta knowing that he would hunt her to the ends of the earth, and that she would die screaming beneath his fangs. But it was T'sikáti who saw it coming, who saw Qa'al's last ditch attempt to stop the most dangerous wolf in their ranks. They saw it happen, and they heard it happen, and they felt the horror in T'sikáti's mental cry of __**"No, Chibód!"**__ But even his childhood name wasn't enough to turn away teeth that met their mark so well, too well._

_One snap of his jaws and Qa'al had ripped the throat out from the Beta's neck. _

_The wolf stumbled, turned shocked eyes Qa'al's way, as if truly not understanding or believing that Qa'al was capable of doing what he had just done. And then the blood, so much blood, too much blood…a gurgling cough, and then the Beta sank to the ground at Qa'al's feet. _

_He was dead before his muzzle touched his paws._

_It is said that in the moments after Qa'al killed the Beta, that the world grew still. Among the masses of the Tlokwali, everyone came to a faltering, stunned halt, and for the first time since the Tlokwali first came into being, there was a silence within them. It was Tupkuk whose whimper of pain started the wave. It built, faster and faster, as memories of the Beta flooded their mind. A Beta so beloved to them, and even as T'sikáti roared at them through the bonds of the Tlokwali to stop, to stop, __**STOP**__**STOP**__**STOP**__, they were too far past that now. The Cold One was beyond their reach, but there was another who had started this. Another who had done this. How dare he? How dare he do THIS? _

_Grief welled into rage, blew past into a frenzied inferno as the massive pack of wolves turned, as they flung themselves back at Qa'al. Qa'al who had lied to them for a Cold One. Qa'al who had murdered the one who would be their next Alpha. Qa'al who had turned on his brother to protect the slayer of their sister, who had become the first Tlokwali to kill another over an enemy. Qa'al, who had guarded the heels of a blood drinking creature._

_Qa'al, who had betrayed them all. _

_It is said that T'sikáti ordered Qa'al to run, begged him to run, but Qa'al did nothing but stare at the dead Beta at his feet. Even as the wave of wolves broke over the land, Qa'al never moved except to sink his belly to the earth, his muzzle between his paws as his Packmates fell upon him. _

_That is what is said…but it is whispered that in the moment where it became clear that Qa'al would not protect himself from the jaws of his brothers, the bond between Qa'al and the wolf spirit guardian he possessed broke loose, the wolf wanting desperately to fight to survive, while the man lay down in acceptance of his fate. The harder the spirit wolf tried to take control, to save them both, the more the man forced it down, forced it back. It is whispered that the first and only of them to ever turn on another Tlokwali for a Cold One was also the first and only of them to ever attack his own wolf spirit and crush it beneath his will, the only one who would have the strength to do so. _

_So thoroughly did Qa'al crush down his wolf spirit guardian, that when the Tlokwali fell upon him, despite the agonizing pain of being ripped and shredded beneath Tlokwali teeth, not once did Qa'al move or turn against them. _

_But he had killed their Alpha. Whether he tried to kill again mattered not, for the damage had already been done. The wave of fury that was this hunt and the destruction of their prey had taken hold of the Tlokwali. Their rage was eclipsed only by the love that T'sikáti held for Qa'al, and with every last bit of strength that he had, T'sikáti became the only Alpha to ever rein in the Tlokwali when they were in a killing rage. But, as it was with too many things, by the time T'sikáti got there, forcing his way past his wolves to stand snarling and bared teeth over his friend, it was too late. _

_Of Qa'al and his spirit wolf, there was almost nothing left._

"Of Qa'al and his spirit wolf, there was almost nothing left," the Alpha said quietly, and silence spread about the gathered wolves as that sank within them. "Qa'al turned on his people and then he turned on the gift that is the wolf spirit, that which makes us what we are. He betrayed both his people, and the spirits, and in his betrayal he turned the spirits against the Tlokwali. His betrayal weakened our Alpha, and through this weakening led our Alpha into being deceived in a great many number of things.

"It is said that if Raven had given Thunderbird the right message that maybe it would not have happened, but in truth it is known that the heart of a weak man can be corrupted by the darkest of creatures. And Qa'al, in lying with such darkness, gave birth to the destruction of our people. Even the strongest fish can be taken by a well-placed fishhook. Perhaps it is the way of great men to have one great weakness, and for T'sikáti, that was always Qa'al. In his love for Qa'al, T'sikáti and the Tlokwali were brought to their knees."

The Alpha paused and then grimaced. "The rest, I will tell another time. Be strong, brothers, and know that you fight and die so that the blood of T'sikáti may rest this night in safety. Die with pride and honor, for unlike with the Qa'al, some mistakes may yet still be redeemed."

His words were enough to make them stretch out, lying close to each other, taking comfort at the pressure of another's wolf's shoulder brushing their own.

Taye watched them struggle in their slumber, watched their eyelids twitch as they hunted demons in their dreams. The Alpha and the young wolf sat on opposite sides of the slowly dying fire, quiet as it faded to softly glowing embers, both relaxing in the knowledge that another watched their back for them. It was moments like these that Taye could see the weight that rested on the shoulders of the one who led them, and with a small bitter smile, the young man shook his head.

"We're all going to die down here, aren't we, Kalísoliyáť?" Taye asked resignedly. "It's going to pick us off one by one until there's nothing left."

"If you believe that to be true, than that is true, little brother," the Alpha replied simply. "The warrior that believes he will fall in battle will fall. The warrior that believes that he will fell his enemy stands tall."

"Standing tall doesn't mean you're not just going to be dead anyways," Taye shot back, and the Alpha's eyes hardened.

"If you fear so much for your life, then go, little brother," the Alpha growled dismissively. "Crawl away on your knees and leave us to fight alone. I will call you _our_ Qa'al, the one who turned his back on us, and tell the stories of the wolf pup that could have been a mighty wolf, but who through fear and cowardice stayed fixed on his mother's teat."

Raising his eyes to his Alpha, Taye gritted his teeth. "I'm not a coward," he snarled. "I just don't like the idea of dying for something that has nothing to do with me."

"What happens to one of us happens to us all," the Alpha told him quietly. "It is the blessing that is those who were once Tlokwali. It is the curse as well. The actions of T'sikáti and Qa'al affect us to this very day. You would be wise to-"

"_Enough, wolf_. You're always trying to guide us," the young man stated in a cold, hard voice. "I'm not interested, at least not in what you have to say." Taye's jaw tightened and he growled softly, "It doesn't matter anyways. Walking or crawling, you'll never let me leave. You'll never let me leave, will you, Kalísoliyáť?"

"No, little brother," the Alpha admitted truthfully. "With your strength, we can keep our enemy even longer at bay, or perhaps even finally end this battle. For the hope of redemption for those at our feet? No, Taye. I will never let you leave."

Silence fell between them, and it occurred to Taye that the silence felt heavy, felt as old as the wind that stung his eyes as it brushed past his face. Felt as old as the wolves all around them, as old even as the mountains in the distance, and the enemy that lay hidden within.

This time Taye didn't have to say anything. The Alpha poked a stick into the embers, causing the largest one to flare up into a brief, yellow flame. As it faded down to small flickers across what was once fallen twigs and leaves from Taye's tree, the Alpha continued his story unbidden. This time the Alpha's words changed from what Taye was used to hearing, what they all were told, because in the telling he knew Kalísoliyáť's words were tailored for him.

"It is said that when T'sikáti came upon Qa'al, that there was nothing left of him but the dying wolf spirit guardian, now bound to the smallest piece of flesh…"

_It is said that when T'sikáti came upon Qa'al, that there was nothing left of him but the dying wolf spirit guardian, now bound to the smallest piece of flesh. Qa'al's body had given way before Qa'al's wolf had given in, and it was both the wolf and the flesh that the Great Alpha T'sikáti gathered up in his arms. Is it said that T'sikáti, he who was of the earth, took from the ground beneath them great clumps of frozen dirt, fashioning them about the flesh of Qa'al in a likeness of T'sikáti's oldest and dearest friend. _

_When he had fashioned Qa'al back from the earth, T'sikáti asked the wolf spirit that had been joined to Qa'al to once more heal him, but the wolf spirit was weakened and angry at Qa'al's betrayal to it, and it said that it would do no such thing. The wolf would be bound to the flesh that was left of Qa'al, but to the rest of him, the wolf would have no part. _

_Undeterred, T'sikáti turned then to the spirits and the ancestors who had always guided Qa'al and the Kwòlíyoť people through Qa'al, their shaman. He asked that they go inside the likeness of Qa'al, and he asked for them to heal Qa'al. The spirits were angered that Qa'al had turned on his wolf guardian spirit, and the ancestors were angered that Qa'al had turned on their flesh and blood, and both refused. T'sikáti asked them again, and again, and on his third asking they grudgingly agreed. The spirits of the world and the ancestors of the Kwòlíyoť people went inside the earthen likeness of Qa'al, and they turned the earth to flesh, but they refused to heal that flesh. Instead they left it shredded and bleeding, and left Qa'al to live or die as he will. _

_Angered at them all, T'sikáti spoke to his own wolf guardian spirit, and he asked that wolf guardian spirit to help Qa'al where the others would not. The wolf spirit inside T'sikáti was silent for a long while, considering the matter, and finally it consented. So the wolf guardian spirit in T'sikáti split itself into two parts. The smaller part went inside Qa'al, and it found that the damage was too much to heal. So the smaller part returned to T'sikáti and instead the larger part took the smaller part's place, and in doing so, healed the worst of Qa'al's wounds. Then the larger part of T'sikáti's wolf guardian spirit grew tired and it laid down to rest, and it did not wake up again, not even when T'sikáti grew weakened at its loss. _

_It was only then, as T'sikáti sat exhausted at Qa'al's side, did the former Qa'al awaken. He saw about him the Tlokwali, all accept for one, and he saw that they wept at the loss of their Beta, and the loss of their sister, and the loss of their Alpha's strength. He saw the anger in their eyes, and knew that he was no match for them, and knew that T'sikáti was not strong enough to keep them away. And then he knew fear, not for himself but for another, and despite his Alpha's sacrifice, he who had once been Qa'al began to crawl away. _

_"Chibód," T'sikáti whispered softly, knowing that this parting would be their last one. "Chibód, please stay." Chibód, for he was no longer their Qa'al, his wolf spirit was too weak within him, and instead of being the strongest of them, he was now the least instead. But the brindled wolf whined piteously and he crept away from Kwòlíyoť land, dragging himself on his belly because he could not stand. When the Tlokwali made to follow, T'sikáti asked them instead of ordering them to remain. _

_And so did the fishhook leave the fish behind, and in doing so, caused the swimming fish to lose its way. _

_Stripped of his name, the brindled wolf crawled through the land, taking days to reach a place that should only have taken minutes. And because his wolf spirit was too weakened, and T'sikáti's wolf spirit slept too deeply, the brindled wolf did not heal as he moved. Eventually he came to the place where he had promised to meet his Cold One lover, in the place that they had made their child, the place where they had known happiness and peace. Beneath the apple tree that her warm brown hands had planted, she was to have met him. _

_Tuktukadi was not there. Instead the wolf Tupkuk sat instead, his head bent as he wept over a pile of Cold One ashes, the remains of a fire that he himself had lit. _

Taye blinked, having not heard this part before. "He killed his own sister?" Taye asked, shocked despite himself, and the Alpha nodded, expression bleak.

"It is our way, little brother," the Alpha said. "We do not allow the Cold Ones to live, for they are made to hunt this land and to kill our people, and to cause only suffering and pain. If Qa'al had killed her as he should have done when he first found her, our brother and our sister would not have been taken and our Alpha weakened to the point of-" He broke off, grinding his teeth together.

"To the point of _what_, Kalísoliyáť?"

The Alpha suddenly snarled, his voice deep and dangerous. "That is another story for another day. Listen, pup, and listen well, for this applies to you as well as the rest of us. When the brindled wolf saw…"

_When the brindled wolf saw that his lover had been killed, he took his human form, despite the pain of doing so. With a cry of despair, the nameless wolf fell to his knees, touching the piles of ashes with shaking hands. _

_"What did you do, Tupkuk?" he asked, voice racked with terrible sobs. "What did you do?"_

_"I did what you yourself were too weak to do," Tupkuk replied angrily, rising to his feet. "I trusted her to you, and you let her be taken! You let her become this and you let her visage stay this way. My sister's spirit is gone and you allowed it to happen. Instead of protecting Tuktukadi, you killed her-"_

_"__**You**__ killed her, Tupkuk," he who was once Qa'al snarled, and despite his weakness, there was fury in his eyes. "__**You killed her**__! I have seen how Cold One's die and you would do that to her?"_

_"I killed the creature that wore my sister's face, __**brother**__," Tupkuk spat in hatred, in disgust. "You bedded it and allowed it to take more from us. You protected it like a kadidu, a mindless obedient dog. You once named me, Qa'al, and now I name you. You are Kadidu, the dog, and to a wolf you are worthless. You live as a dog, and you will die as one, begging for your master in the dirt."_

_The kadidu rose, his limbs shaking with grief and pain. "Your heart is blackened in your chest, Tupkuk," the brindled wolf decided softly, tears rolling down his face. "I named you well. Go from this place."_

_"Or what? You will kill me as well?" Tupkuk asked, his voice full of derision. "You are too weak to kill me."_

_The kadidu looked at the pile of ashes that had once been his lover, and his friend, and for the first time in his life, he knew true hatred. "Maybe, Tupkuk," he growled murderously. "But maybe not."_

_And then the wolf that had been Qa'al seized his lover's brother, and with a snarl of mindless rage, flung Tupkuk into Tuktukadi's tree. It was small, just a sapling, and it should have broken beneath Tupkuk's weight, but instead it bent and allowed him to fall free. There was a startled beating of wings, and the wolf that had once been Qa'al froze as he saw a snowy white owl lift itself into the air directly in front of his face, no longer resting on the apple tree's slender snow covered limbs. _

_He stood there wide-eyed as her wingtips brushed his face, her tongue clicking her beak in annoyance, before she let out a soft cry and flew away on silent wings. A single white feather slipped down through the air and landed at his feet. _

_Wordlessly the kadidu and the black-hearted one stared at that feather, and then each other. _

_"Go, Tupkuk," the former Qa'al whispered, the fight having left him. "Just go from this place. There is nothing more you can take from me." _

_Silently, the half-Makah youth turned and left the former Qa'al alone and broken amongst the trees. It is said that the brindle wolf gathered up his lover's ashes, and that he spread them across the land in the four directions, and that he laid the feather beneath the apple tree. His heart numbed in his chest, his body torn and useless and his spirit crushed, the brindle wolf walked slowly back to the land of the Kwòlíyoť people, even though in his heart he knew it was too late for redemption. _

_T'sikáti was waiting at the border of their lands. Too ashamed to look upon the one he had always followed, the brindled wolf bowed his head and whispered that he was sorry. He was so very sorry, T'sikáti. He hadn't meant it. He hadn't meant any of it._

_"I know, brother," T'sikáti said gently, pulling his friend into an embrace. Even as the brindled wolf, the kadidu, wept against T'sikáti's shoulder, the Alpha whispered, "But it has been done. You must make your own path now, old friend, for I can no longer let you in this place. You have caused the Tlokwali too much pain, and they cannot heal as they must with you beside them. Their anger will rot them from the inside and destroy them. I'm sorry, old friend. You must stay away."_

_"For how long, T'sikáti?" he who had once been Qa'al, and Chibód, and Tlokwali asked, stepping back and shivering as tears ran down his face. "How long must I stay away?"_

_The Great Alpha T'sikáti was quiet for a long time, and then he picked up a jagged rock at his feet, handing it to he who had been their most faithful Qa'al. "Take this rock in your hand, Qa'al," T'sikáti said sadly. "Take it in your palm once every day, and when it is as smooth as the surface of the flowing river, you may come home."_

_Closing his eyes, Qa'al, once beloved by the people, took the rock from T'sikáti's hand. He knew that neither of them would live to see that day. "Goodbye, old friend," Qa'al whispered. "It was…it was a good life with you." _

_"We will run together in the next life, brother," T'sikáti promised, a hurt smile upon his lips. "We will hunt, or if you ever learn, we will finally swim." _

_Qa'al smiled at that because it was what T'sikáti wanted, and then the fish parted ways with the fishhook, never to see each other again._

"And then fish parted ways with the fishhook, never to see each other again."

Taye frowned, his hand drifting to the shoulder of the wolf lying closest to him, one that had awoken during the telling. The wolf relaxed and then rolled over so that the Alpha couldn't see his face. This Alpha didn't like weakness, which was why Kalísoliyáť usually ended the story with Qa'al's abandonment of T'sikáti, a thing that always solidified his wolves into anger and courage, before shifting the story to other things. This part, Taye had never heard.

"Why tell me this, Kalísoliyáť?" Taye wondered, and the Alpha turned to look upon the mountains that rose behind him, so tall and imposing in the distance.

"Because one day you may have to choose between the good of one and the good of all, brother," the Alpha said quietly. "To protect many, you sometimes have to sacrifice the few, and it takes a harder heart to do this thing. A harder heart would have saved Qa'al, would have saved T'sikáti, would have saved us all. Letting a woman you love die, letting a friend fall for his failures, not mourning the loss if someone you love has to walk away. Harden your heart, Taye, and you will be a stronger wolf than even I am."

As the wind carried the scent of their enemy to his nostrils, Taye rose and gave his Alpha a hard look. "Don't try to guide me, Kalísoliyáť," Taye warned harshly and then he phased mid-step, leaping over the remains of the fire to the far side of the Alpha. Taye lifted his muzzle to howl a warning that the enemy was upon them again before stalking off into the darkness, slowly, carefully, every step calculated as the Alpha had taught him.

The old wolf smiled slightly as his youngest called them all to this new battle, one they had been fighting for two hundred years. "I wouldn't dream of it, Taye."

* * *

The vampire was angry.

Jack wasn't sure why, and he was relatively certain that the vampire wasn't angry with _him_. It was hard to tell because over the centuries there had been a lot of people that had been very angry with Jack, and sometimes when Jack was feeling more confused than normal, they all began to blend together. On another day, Jack might have been inclined to ask, but right now the wolf was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to make the voices in his head soften for the briefest of moments. Jack had ripped down so much of his barriers between himself and the spirits to try to save his Beta, that the resulting voices and their chastisement had left his head spinning. The cost had been worth it, but that didn't make the cost any easier to pay up.

They were so loud…so loud and so _angry_…

In contrast the vampire was very quiet, taking a good long look at Jack's partially healed shoulders and back before walking away off into the woods, a cigarette in his mouth and a scowl on his face. Rico must have come back while Jack was using the trailer's tiny shower, something they both avoided because it was cramped and uncomfortable when there were plenty of rivers and streams nearby. At least, someone who could move as silently as Jack could had left several bags full of chicken sandwiches and French fries on the kitchen counter, along with four two-liters of orange drink. Jack _really_ liked orange drink, but Rico already knew that. In a world that was constantly changing, it was hard for two old creatures to keep changing as well, but as long as Rico had his women, and Jack kept finding things like orange drink, they'd make do.

_Betrayer_. Yes, Jack knew that.

_Murderer_. Yes, Jack knew that too.

Rico had taken off again by the time Jack slipped out of the shower, drying himself off with one of the thin white towels stacked near the sink. Every movement hurt, and the shower must have loosened some of the scabbing on his back, because Jack could smell the sharp scent of blood in his nostrils. His friend had been particularly thirsty lately, and it wouldn't be good to bleed in front of Rico, but Rico had removed himself from the situation. Jack appreciated that more than he could say. Right now he was so damn tired, and he wanted to be able to curl up somewhere that he could let his guard down. This trailer might reek like Cold One, but it was the only home that Jack knew anymore.

A brief look in his drawer where he kept his things. A feather and a broken knife, a dried bit of apple, and a small lump wrapped in leather. Everything was where it should be.

Dressing in deer hide felt more normal than the current trends of clothing, helped center the confusion the loudly speaking voices in his head were creating. Wrapping a polyester blanket around his torn shoulders, buckskin leggings butter soft against his skin, the ancient wolf dropped down heavily into the plastic folding chair in the trailer's kitchen. Somewhere off to the north, a child fell asleep, her joy at Seth's improved condition fading into that steady presence that meant she was resting without dreams to trouble her.

There was a note by the sandwiches. The Volturi Cold One had something it wanted to discuss with Rico. If the vampire wasn't back by tomorrow, Jack ought to go spend a little more time near that Pack of his, if they hadn't managed to kill him yet like the last one had tried to do. The last part made Jack smile slightly. Oh yes, his friend was angry, and the Volturi Cold One would most likely take the brunt of it.

Rico was a dangerous creature on the rare times that he chose to be.

Silent and alone, Jack ate his sandwiches slowly. Healing always made them hungrier, but Jack had lived through too many hungry winters, and he knew that if he saved some of these, that he wouldn't have to go hunting later. He would have more time to heal.

_Traitor_…yes, but he hadn't meant to…_**Traitor**_. Yes. Yes, okay…

He didn't remember the walk from the trailer to the tree, but exhaling heavily, Jack sank down into the ground. He put his ruined back to the trunk and let the bark dig into his shoulders. It hurt. For most people, with pain came sharp clarity, but for him it brought a fuzzy haziness that made life easier, simpler. Jack was a wolf, and he understood pain. Pain meant hunkering down and hiding away. Pain went hand in hand with weakness, and Jack had been weak now for a very long time. The ancient wolf sighed and leaned back into the bark, letting his mind wander, letting the voices take him as they would. Jack had willingly agreed to this, and this was the price he had always paid for the decisions he had always made.

The spirits and the ancestors were angry, as angry as they had ever been, and even though the veil was lifting from his eyes a little more every day, there were some hurts that a small vampire child and a young Pack simply couldn't take away. As Jack slowly slipped beneath the weight of their pressure on his thoughts, his focus cracking and his self-awareness scattering before their chanting voices, he remembered what he had done so very long ago. But he hadn't meant to, he was so sorry, he was so sorry and he hadn't meant to…

Inside his head, T'sikáti started to speak, but then faded off into silence as the voices were suddenly blocked away.

A massive russet body sank down beside Jack, a heavily muscled shoulder giving him somewhere softer, easier to lean than a dead woman's tree. The Alpha would stay until Jack had healed more, so Jack should sleep. Jack had taken a beating for his Pack, and Jack had done his best, and Jake was proud of him. Now rest, Packmate, brother, and sleep.

And as a young Alpha guarded his injured wolf against the dangers of the world inside and out, Jack breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

This time when he closed his eyes, the former Qa'al remembered happier, better things.


	16. Chapter 14

**A/N **Hello! Credit for Renesmee wanting to make a Spiderman cake goes entirely to the wonderful Hefors, and thanks to all my reviewers last chapter: _The all mighty and powerfulM, 82c10akaLynn, Ninadoll, shelbron, KerryH, hilja, Britt01, Jessica1018, Buffyk0604, moani-sama, Aleena Kiwiana, EnglishVoice, Gryffindor Gurl2, cylobaby, scrapalicious, MargotTenser, StealthLiberal, laurazuleta18, WorldsAngel, chicadee74, TheNotoriousLIP, Alpha Mingan, Hannah Writes R, _and_ MadToTheBone1_. We should only have five or six chapters left. Later gators! ~mel

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Fourteen

_**The Americas, 1533 AD**_

_Ricardo de Vaena was hungry. _

_Unfortunately Ricardo de Vaena didn't care very much for being hungry, a state of existence that left him feeling unreasonably peckish. The humans were gone, one overboard and the rest down Neel's gullet, and a very disgruntled de Vaena was left with only Neel and a mannerly rat aboard the ship. Being the mannerly sort himself despite his hunger, de Vaena chose to feed off of Neel instead of the rat. After all, it was not the rat's fault that de Vaena was hungry, there was plenty of salt pork that it had been willing to share, and Neel had filled himself so full of blood that de Vaena could drink from his get easily. _

_For a vampire, there were more painful places to be bitten than others, and in his annoyance, de Vaena made sure to show his protégé every single one of these places with the utmost precision. De Vaena considered this a lesson learned well. _

_By the time the merchant ship ripped out it hull on a reef not far off of a long stretch of sandy coastline, the younger vampire was nearly dead, his body so hard from lack of blood that he could barely move. Seated on Neel's back with one of his boots kicked up comfortably on the younger vampire's head, Ricardo de Vaena eyed the landmass with less than enthusiasm. _

_"I have a question for you, Neel," de Vaena said sourly. "After this long and perilous journey, I had expected to be met with the pleasure that is a warm body in my arms, of a pretty hardworking woman, or maybe a handsome rustic man beneath my teeth. Either one would have sufficed as they both taste equally wonderfully, but instead all I can see is sand. Out of curiosity, Neel, what can _you_ see?"_

_Neel hissed angrily when de Vaena kicked the back of his head in annoyance, but the vampire was in a lot of pain currently and the hissing had been an ongoing thing. De Vaena had removed one of his arms, which was currently wedged in the wooden ship's wheel to keep them on their western course. Lacking any sort of sufficient navigation skills, going west was the most de Vaena knew of these oceanic voyage type things. One of the vampire's fingers was in fact pointing west, because vampire parts were particularly bendable and pose-able when they were dismembered, and it had been to de Vaena's amusement that the mannerly rat had found that finger to be a suitable perch the last several weeks of the voyage. However, right now de Vaena was becoming particularly hungry, his normal amusements lacked their appeal, and the vampire wanted nothing more than something to just eat already. _

_With the exception of the rat and himself, there was nothing for de Vaena to eat. _

_Wedging his boot toe beneath Neel's chin, de Vaena forced the younger vampire to look up and out at the coastline. "This journey was supposed to end at a small colonial settlement, but do you see a colonial settlement, Neel?" Ricardo de Vaena asked grumpily. "Because I'm looking around right now, and _I_ don't see a colonial settlement. I don't _hear_ a colonial settlement. I don't _smell_ a colonial settlement. In fact, dear boy, I don't sense anything resembling _human_ at all. Now why, when we've come all this way, would we not find a colonial settlement? Oh, that's right. Because _you_ ate the former _captain_, the only one who knew where we were going."_

_Another kick in the head and de Vaena sighed the sigh of one who is very much put upon. "And now, I suppose that I will have to hunt beasts if I want something to drink. May I remind you that I once had chambermaids _delivered_ to my room on a moment's notice, and because of you I'm now forced to live a life such as this? It was very unkind of you, Neel. Very unkind. I'll probably never forgive you, in case you were wondering."_

_If Neel could have spoken, de Vaena was sure the younger vampire would have had much to say, but de Vaena had no interest in the minds of the mentally deranged. Sadistic was fine, perverse was enjoyable, but insane had grown tedious long before this journey had started. To be honest, de Vaena wouldn't have been so incredibly hungry right now if Neel hadn't turned de Vaena's stomach off of his food so often as they were sailing. De Vaena couldn't quite believe it, but after months on the ocean with his get, de Vaena was almost sick of hearing things scream. Almost._

_"Ahh well," the older vampire said morosely. "At least we were able to get this far, and with no thanks to you, my dear protégé. At least our mannerly little friend over there was willing and able to fill the position left by the loss of our former captain, and a finer ship master I have never had the pleasure of meeting."_

_From its place upon Neel's finger, the rat realized that de Vaena was addressing it, and it paused in its whisker grooming, beady black eyes staring at de Vaena intently. The vampire gave the rat captain a courtly bow, at least as much of a bow as one can perform whilst seated on another vampire, and the rat squeaked. _

_"Much agreed," de Vaena nodded, "Much agreed. The ship is taking water and there's not much else to be said on the matter. We have been breached and beached, and if there is one thing I have learned in my many lifetimes, it is that when one must put an effort into keeping afloat, then it is time to abandon ship. Therefore we must continue on, dear captain, at least the two of us. Our unpredictable and disreputable friend here will have to remain."_

_The rat squeaked again and went back to cleaning its whiskers. De Vaena always could appreciate cleanliness, and begrudged it not its activities._

_"I wonder, my ratly captain," de Vaena mused as the ship sank lower into the water, "If a vampire has no need to breathe and is too weak to move, how long will he rest at the bottom of the sea? A day? A week? Many lifetimes? Will he be fetched out eventually, covered with barnacles like our dying vessel here? Or will he learn to stay in one place and behave as a vampire should behave? Either way I don't envy our shipmate, for I have always found the ocean to be a disconcerting place to stay for too long. When one can see the very smallest particles of water flowing past one's face, to be submerged in them for too long becomes very distracting. It gives me a headache, much like receiving a boot in the face."_

_De Vaena happily punctuated his words with the same action, and the younger vampire hissed again, at least until Ricardo de Vaena hopped up to his feet, perching upon Neel's head comfortably as de Vaena surveyed his new domain. "Well, I suppose that this is a large enough place, if what the accounts say is accurate at all. The rat and I will be leaving you here to live or die as you may, my good boy, although the second would cause me a significant amount of discomfort. Try not to make too much of a mess of things, and I'll make sure to not take the blame for your actions any longer."_

_And so Ricardo de Vaena left his biggest mistake in a sinking ship, and put a rat captain on his shoulder, and swam his way to the shore. Once there he sighed and decided that if he was no longer to be a courtier, or a colonial settler, then Ricardo de Vaena would have to find something more appropriate to be. _

_"What do you think, dear captain?" de Vaena asked as he headed away from the sand, towards the deep green forests that promised to hide any number of blood-filled things. "Shall we be adventurers, exploring this exciting new world in the name of the crown of England?"_

_The captain squeaked and nibbled de Vaena's shirt sleeve and as he adjusted his hat on his head, the vampire was inclined to agree. "Yes, yes, you're quite right. Henry wasn't much when it came to loyalty, was he? Well, perhaps we shall explore just for the sake of exploring, you and I. Would you like to lead the way, sir? Well, you _are_ the captain, and I am simply Ricardo the Unfortunate, your closest friend and first mate. No, no, captain, by all means, after you…"_

_Ricardo was still adventuring his way up the coastline as a ship and another vampire sank their way into the sea. _

* * *

On a day where his Packmate mourned deeply the loss of a blood brother, an ancient wolf waited to be called to use for his Alpha. Until then he rested, and in resting, attended to more pleasant of activities.

The horses had been grained, the penned up jack rabbit had been reassured it would not be eaten this morning, and the brand new foal had consented to being haltered and led. The filly was a rambunctious little thing, and as he squatted in the turnout after releasing her, watching her flit back and forth on tall skinny legs, Jack couldn't help but smile. His imprint had helped this one to life, and so far she seemed to be enjoying that life greatly, bounding through the snow and kicking out her tiny hooves anytime the frozen stuff dared to touch too highly up her flanks. The buckskin mare was more inclined to stay put, chewing calmly at the hayrack that Jack had just filled for her. Behind him, the two geldings were in another turnout doing the same, although an occasional ear would flicker the filly's way when she leapt particularly high.

Sensing that she was the center of attention, she darted past Jack and landed a solid thump in the center of his shoulder blades, making the ancient wolf wince and shake his head.

"If your imprint doesn't come up with a name for her, then I've got a few that I could suggest," Rico chuckled from the outside of the fence rail. "She's a spitfire, isn't she?"

"She's young, Rico. She doesn't mean to hurt anyone," Jack murmured calmly, giving Rico a small smile. Despite the easygoing expression on his face, the cowboy had a definite narrowing of his eyes.

Despite his saliva-less mouth, Rico spat into the snow at his feet and then adjusted his new hat. "Yeah yeah, so you keep sayin', Jackie boy. So you keep sayin'."

"You are still angry, old friend," Jack murmured thoughtfully. "Do you wish to speak of it?"

"Nope," the Cold one drawled lazily. "You're still torn to hell. Do _you_ want to speak about it?"

Jack grinned and ducked his head as the filly bolted past him again, her stubby tail flicking and almost getting him in the nose. "Not particularly," Jack drawled back teasingly. Then Jack went tilted his head and listened because the Cold One had done the same. They had a visitor, one that had used the wind to cover his scent, but this visitor couldn't walk softly enough for either of them not to know he was there.

"I still need to teach them to move without tumbling mountains," Jack murmured half to himself, and Rico snorted.

"You need to teach them a lot of things," the Cold One decided sourly, kicking his boot against the fence. The pup was several miles away, and as he walked closer, Rico's expression darkened. Jack simply grimaced, wondering how his Packmate was able to successfully hunt anything at all. The ancient wolf had known elk bulls that treaded more softly.

"Damn, you really do live out in the middle of nowhere, don't you, Jack?" Collin muttered as he stepped out of the wood line. "Hey man, I would have called or howled or something, but the folks snagged my phone and Jake has us all going wolfless right now because of Sims."

Jack turned and looked over his shoulder, pleased that one of his Packmates had come all this way to see him. He started to speak but the Cold One cut him off.

"You aren't welcome here," Rico said in a clear, hard voice, and for the first time in many centuries, absolutely all traces of his affected country drawl had disappeared. Instead his words were clear and crisp, with the faintest hint of a Spanish accent. It was that which made Jack tense and very carefully hold himself still.

"Rico..." Jack said softly, warningly, but the Cold One's eyes were flat as he spoke towards the fence rail, not turning towards the young wolf standing behind him.

"He isn't welcome here," Rico repeated, his voice lowering dangerously. "Run him out, Jack, or I will."

When Collin snorted at that, Jack glanced over his shoulder at Collin, noticing the pup not noticing Rico, at least not nearly enough. Rico was an old thing, and old things had a tendency to get more dangerous as they aged. Rico rarely let his good old boy routine slip, mostly because it amused him to be relaxed and laidback and cheerful. However Jack had been around this Cold One long enough to know that Rico was only playing at being the person that he seemed. The truth was that beneath the light, cheerful exterior was a dark and brooding creature, one that suited Jack's own darker side very well.

It wasn't so much that they were opposites as it was that they were different shades of the same color. Jack's darkness was centered inwards where Rico's was focused outwards. Where the Cold One would destroy the world, Jack would destroy himself, and because they knew this about each other, it was that which they guarded in each other. The ancient wolf had stood between the Cold One and his need to destroy for a very long time. The Cold One had no tolerance for others aiding in the destruction of Jack's own self.

Considering the deep wounds that still lay healing across Jack's back muscles, this was a very dangerous place for Collin to be.

Jack dipped his head, his eyes half lidded as the filly peered curiously over his shoulder at the golden eyed vampire on the fence. "Our territory is shared, old friend," Jack murmured softly, almost gently, very glad that Rico hadn't turned to look at Collin yet. "He is Tlokwali and welcome to come as he pleases."

"Actually, I came to apologize, Jack," Collin said gruffly, ignoring the Cold One, and looking embarrassed as he stood there, oblivious to the hardening of Rico's eyes.

"Jackie boy ain't never held no one accountable for their actions," Rico told the fence in front of him, dropping back to his casual drawl in a purposeful attempt to calm himself down. "But he holds himself to blame in spades. If you want to feel better, then go ahead. Apologize, kid. Jack'll forgive you, but it won't mean shit because Jackie hasn't figured out that he didn't have it coming in the first place."

The pup was swelling up aggressively, as pups often did, but the Cold One's cigarettes were still in his pocket. Until they weren't, Jack decided to let this run its course.

"We're Pack, leech, so back off," Collin growled, taking a step forward deeper into their territory, and it was Jack's nature to allow it. Unfortunately it was Rico's nature to not, and when his true nature slipped to the surface, the Cold One could be very dangerous. "What happened between Jack and I is our business, _Pack_ business. It has nothing to do with you. If you want to get in the middle of it, why don't you help us find that asshole that broke our borders and hurt our people?"

Jack sighed heavily, thinking that if the arrogance of youth could just be paired with the weakness of age, then the old could keep the world running much smoother. Then he grew very still as Rico finally turned and looked at the pup with bright, gleaming eyes.

"Now why," Rico asked Collin in the softest of voices, "Would I do _that_?"

Jack's Packmate was used to Cold Ones, was used to a much more…passive breed of Cold Ones, ones that their Alpha regularly ran roughshod over. But this was not that kind of Cold One, and the realization dawned in Collins eyes even as the cowboy adjusted his hat. The Cold One glanced at Jack, who was in the middle of the turnout, and Collin who was in the middle of the yard, making it clear that he was gauging the distances in between all three.

It was done deliberately, Rico was far too skilled to let Collin see him do that unless he meant the pup to see, and Jack tried not to sigh a second time when the vampire added, "Considering Jackie here dragged himself home three days ago looking like hell, why should _I_ do anything?"

It was then that Collin figured out that he was in trouble. He had approached them in a way that put Rico between Jack and himself, and while that would normally mean that the vampire was flanked and at a disadvantage. In truth it meant that Rico could get to Collin before Jack could get to Collin to help. Realization of this tactical error, so soon after the attack of the Cold One on their Beta, made Collin stiffen. But the kid was tough, Jack had to give him that. Instead of giving way, he closed the distance, heading straight for both Rico and Jack.

Rico rolled so that his shoulder blades were against the fence as he leaned backwards, watching Collin approach.

"Don't hurt him," Jack reminded his friend quietly, and Rico's lips curved into a slighter larger smile when Jack added, "He's under my protection."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Jackie boy," the Cold One chuckled, pushing himself off the fence with his shoulders and meeting Collin halfway in between. The young wolf was slightly taller than the blonde cowboy but not by much, and the hat made them even. Rico looked Collin up and down with a lazy grin, as if measuring the pup and mentally categorizing what he saw. Collin didn't seem to like that and he stared Rico down, his jaw tight and his eyes flashing angrily.

"My business is with Jack, not with you. Get out of my way," Collin snarled, his voice deepening in response to feeling threatened. "Jack, how do you put up with this asshole all the time?"

Jack didn't answer immediately, even though he felt bound to do so. Perhaps it was pride. Jack had taken a beating from this pup, had not held it against him even when the pup had nearly slammed into Jack's imprint. Jack had tried to comfort Collin when the pup had been forced outside of Tlokwali lands for a few hours, when the pup had been devastated by his banishment, despite how much pain Jack had been in. But like Rico had said, this was _their_ territory, Jack's home, and he couldn't help but stiffen defensively.

"I've always done as our Alpha requires, Packmate," Jack said quietly, trying to force himself into a more submissive body posture. "He's given me leave to spend the rest of my time as I choose."

"Shit," Collin cursed, realizing that Jack had taken his words as a rebuke. His eyes slid off of Rico's for the barest instant. "No, Jack. I didn't mean it like-" There were lessons that Collin would learn from Paul and there were ones he would have to learn by himself the hard way. Never _ever_ take your eye off of a vampire.

For the rest of his life, Collin would say that it was the hardest hit he would ever take.

Collin hadn't fought much growing up, and by the time he had phased, he was a strong as anyone around him. Wolf fights tended towards claw and fang, at least back before Jake had set rules down about fighting, rules Collin himself had broken just a few days ago. So when Rico laid him out with a single punch to the jaw, nearly knocking him unconscious, the pup ended up on the ground, wide-eyed and in shock.

"Never ever take your eye off of a vampire, kid," Rico told him, swaggering over as Collin blinked, looking dazed. "After all these years, I can count on one hand how many times Jackie boy's taken his eyes off of me. See, that's because Jackie and me, we ain't never forgotten who we are. He's a wolf, and I'm a vampire, kid. We're designed to kill each other, we're _good_ at killing each other, and Jackie boy's the best I've ever seen. Just cause we're walking the same path for a while doesn't mean that we've _ever_ forgotten who we are."

His Packmate must have been personally ordered not to phase by someone, because by the look on the face of the slowly standing pup, Collin very much wanted to be wolf right about then. Knowing that Collin was at a disadvantage, Jack stood up as well, growling softly. "Leave him be, Rico, you've made your point. He's young, and he didn't know better."

"They're all young to us, Jackie," Rico drawled, "Although, I'd like to see the look on this little shit's face if he'd seen you try and fight back."

"Fuck you, man," Collin snarled. "What the hell do you know about it anyway?"

The vampire held his ground and then gave Collin a smirk. "I know enough. You couldn't quite catch him, could ya?"

With an enraged snarl, Collin lunged at the vampire, only to have Rico move faster than the kid had ever seen, getting behind him and forcing Collin into a painful choke hold. Rico's fangs were out, and Collin stiffened when he realized it.

"It's because Jackie's right," Rico said in Collin's ear. "You're too young, kid. Too young, too dumb, and too slow." With a chuckle, Rico released Collin and gave him a little shove, one that nearly put his face into a snowdrift, adding, "You might want to work on that."

Jake must not have given Collin a particularly strong order to stay human, or else it was the Third who had given it, because that was as much as Collin was going to take. As Rico took a step up to him, Collin let out an infuriated bellow and phased on his hands and knees, ready to spin and rip the Cold One apart. He didn't make it very far. Even before Collin had finished phasing, Rico had grabbed him by the back of the neck, forcing his grey body down to the dirt on his belly. The cowboy sank to his heels next to Collin, ignoring it as the wolf snarled and snapped and raged.

Sighing, Rico adjusted his hat and pulled out his pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, shaking one loose so that he could snag it between his teeth. Tucking the pack away, Rico patted himself one-handedly for a lighter, finally finding it in his back jeans pocket. He lit his cigarette and then inhaled deeply. A moment later, he exhaled contentedly. Unable to twist himself loose, Collin stared at Rico with a combination of fear and muted fury, the whites showing as his eyes rolled back.

"One hand, kid," Rico told Collin confidently, looking down at him. "One hand is all I need to take you out, and if I had to admit it, I ain't half as good as my buddy over there. Just you remember that when you look at him, when you look at all those pretty new lines you gave him. I ain't half as good as him, and you ain't nothing compared to me. You might want to work on that too."

If Rico could count the number of times Jack had let his guard down around Rico on one hand, when it came to himself for the Cold One, Jack could do the same. Jack had moved when Rico was keeping his Packmate held down, and with a quiet noise of warning for the Cold One, Jack shifted around Rico and crouched down on Collin's other side. Jack's hand rested on Collin's neck near where Rico was gripping him.

"Enough, my friend," Jack said quietly. "You're too old to be frightening children." He hadn't meant it as an insult, although as the words left his tongue, Jack wondered if they might be taken as such. The pup was touchy, as was normal for the young ones gaining dominance in a Pack of already dominant wolves. Still, he kept his hand soothingly on the pup's neck. "I'm still healing, Rico," Jack admitted. "I'd rather not have to fight you today."

Rico watched him, took a long drag of his cigarette and then chuckled. "Naw, today's probably not a good day. I still have to go to the feed store before they close."

And with that the vampire released Collin and rose to his feet, walking back to the trailer and patting one of the geldings on the rump on the way. Collin snarled at the retreating figure and started to follow, but Jack's hands tightened into the pup's ruff, holding him back. Rico disappeared into the trailer, leaving Collin to try and calm down enough to phase human again. It only took a few moments, and then the pup was climbing hurriedly to his feet.

"What the _hell_?" Collin demanded, looking wild eyed. "What the hell was that all about? He's never done that shit before."

"You came into a vampire's Cold One's territory and asserted your place in it," Jack said calmly, rising to his own feet. "That's a dangerous thing to do if you cannot back your actions up." Collin opened his mouth, but before he could say what he was thinking, Jack smiled slightly at him. "The Cold One has more of a temper than most know, but he is wrong, Packmate. You are welcome here and your apology has worth. Rico is just…he is having a bad day."

Collin cursed again, and Jack chuckled, patting Collin's shoulder. "He cares for his own skin far too much to risk it facing me with minimal reason. Be easy brother, I would not have let you come to harm."

The pup flushed, seeming extremely uncomfortable. Being handled by a vampire had a tendency of doing that to a wolf. Being distracted would help, so Jack moved back to the fence, the pup walking even at his side. Even now it was hard for Collin to follow a more submissive wolf's lead, a state that would take a while for the pup to grow out of. The filly had grown bored, and she had stuck her head through the fencing, peering at them curiously. Jack made a clucking noise and she jumped skittishly, wheeling about and darting off to hide behind her mother.

"She will kick you without thinking twice, because it is her instinct to do so," Jack murmured. "Her hooves will always be dangerous, but she'll know when to lash out and when to stand still. These things simply take time to learn."

Collin dropped his face and scuffed his bare foot in the snow, looking ashamed. "Listen, Jack, I…shit. Okay, I…I just don't know what happened. I mean, I know everyone went a little crazy, and then Seth got hurt, and we all flipped. But that leech…something about him, man, just makes me so angry that I can't handle it. Every time he's crossed the border, I've nearly lost it. His scent…hell, it just _gets_ to me, you know?" The pup paused, grimacing, and then looked at him in frustration. "Jack? Jack, why didn't you just fight back? Why didn't you just protect yourself from me?"

Jack closed his eyes, his lips curving up into a small sad smile. "Because, Packmate, I am…_prone_…to making mistakes and for some mistakes there can never be enough apologies for. But young and old, we can all learn from our mistakes and know not to repeat them. I will not fight a Packmate, not again, not for myself."

"You wouldn't have killed me, Jack, not even on accident," Collin stated stubbornly, and Jack's smile fell. The ancient wolf looked over at his Packmate and tilted his head to the side, and in his eyes Collin saw a hint of the wolf inside Jack, a sliver of the wolf that still remained.

"Are you sure, Collin?" Jack asked quietly. "Are you sure that you know what any of us are capable of?"

Collin was quiet for a long time and then he shook his head. "I don't know, Jack," Collin admitted. "But I'd like to think that I'm capable of being a better person than I have been."

Jack nodded but stayed silent. He was well aware of the feelings his Packmate was experiencing, and besides his forgiveness, there was not much else Jack could say. They watched the filly cavort about the turnout for a while, the pup at Jack's side lost in thought. Finally Collin blinked and straightened, as if hearing something that brought him back to the present.

"Listen, Jack, I came here to apologize, but I'm supposed to tell you something else," Collin said. "Billy okayed your request to go to James Island, although Jake was surprised you asked in the first place. Quil's planning on going with you, but Jake says you can go alone if you'd prefer." The pup gave him a funny look. "You're Quileute, Jack, you don't need one of us to be there if you need to go to our sacred places. Anyways, you're supposed to let Jake know what you find either way, but he needs you running patrol on foot in an hour if you're able and I'm skipping the funeral to run for you if you're not. Embry and Quil are patrolling too, they knew Shane the least and can get away without being there."

Jack nodded. "I am able, and I still wish to be accompanied. It is…more proper like this."

"Jack? Why are you going out there?" Collin asked curiously. "Why do you need to check the island?"

The ancient wolf cast his eyes to the trailer, and then said soft enough that only his Packmate could hear, "Because the Cold One has been having too many bad days."

* * *

Betas had a way of getting what they wanted, and for a while, what Seth _really_ wanted was to get out of bed without nearly falling, and being able to take a piss without Jake having to keep him on his feet. Although, considering that Carlisle had just allowed Seth to start eating semi-solid foods, something his freshly healed intestines were struggling with, Seth was learning to look back on the pissing company with fond _fond_ memories.

"I think we just crossed the line between appropriate Alpha/Beta interaction, Jake," Seth mumbled, flushing embarrassedly. "Sorry about this, man."

"Don't worry about it, Seth," Jake told him gruffly as Seth shuffled across the hall and into his bedroom, the Alpha helped his Beta back to bed. "You know Billy has his tougher days, and Rachael and Rebecca were never strong enough to help."

"I thought we were supposed to heal faster than this," Seth grumbled, hissing in pain as he tried to settle back into his blankets. "Hell, even wearing boxers hurts like a sonofabitch."

"I'd say go naked," Jake chuckled. "But I've seen your junk enough this last week to last me a lifetime." The Alpha's eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward, giving Seth a less than light thump on the head. "Plus, you were basically gutted, Seth, and your ass is lucky that Cullen's good enough to know how to stick it all back in. You're _lucky_ it hurts, you should be thankful it hurts, you should be on your knees, weeping with joy at my feet that it hurts. Speaking of which…"

"You're going to make me say it again, aren't you?" Seth mumbled wearily, even as Jake helped him get a second pillow beneath his shoulders. Lying flat actually caused Seth more pain then being propped up a few inches.

"Every day until you're healed," Jake smirked, stepping back and crossing his arms.

Seth rolled his eyes and sighed. "I was a bad Beta," he muttered, and Jake's smirk widened.

"Couldn't quite hear you there, Seth."

"_I was a bad Beta_," Seth repeated through gritted teeth. "I was a bad Beta who didn't listen to my Alpha."

"And what happens to bad Betas, Seth?" Jake pushed, and Seth sighed again.

"Their Alphas take their comics books and leave them to stare at the blank ceiling in their shame," Seth finished morosely. "You're a mean, mean person, Jake."

"I'm a _tired_ person," the Alpha replied, rubbing his eyes wearily. "Listen man, Shane's funeral is today. No, you're not going, so lay your ass back down." Seth growled at that, but before he could say anything, Jake pushed on. "Jared's lost enough, Seth. Do you think seeing you drop in the middle of his brother's funeral is going to help him at all? No. Listen, Embry's running the border with Quil and Jack, but I need something from you."

"To lie here uselessly?" Seth asked, and Jake smiled slightly.

"No, I need you to _be_ useful. I need three on patrol, and I need as many of us there with Jared as possible, and I need someone to hang out with Sims. I need to give her something supernatural to sharpen her teeth on for a while until we can come back."

Seth tried to sit up higher, but Jake growled at him, making the younger wolf pause halfway through the action. "Wait, she's here? Sims is here?"

"She's outside with Embry, actually," Jake frowned. "She has been for the last few minutes. Seth, you couldn't feel her through the Pack bonds?"

"I don't know, Jake," Seth growled. "I barely feel you right now and you're standing right next to me. But I want to see her, she did this shit for me, and I _need_ to see her. Help me up."

The Alpha was still frowning, and then he leaned in and pressed a hand to Seth's shoulder lightly. Seth was too weak to do anything but sink back down beneath that pressure, and Seth called the Alpha a few not very nice things. "Yeah, yeah, I know I am," Jake rolled his eyes. "Listen, we cleared Sue out of here while you were still sleeping because Sims…well, you'll have to see for yourself."

"What do you mean?" the Beta asked, and his eyes narrowed. "Jake, what haven't you guys been telling me?"

The Alpha ignored him and walked from the room, leaving Seth to wait. Seth's ears were sharp, but his body had taken such a beating that he had a tendency to drift off as he continued to heal, so he really only knew what Jake had been willing to share so far. The leech had broken the border, killed two people and almost done the same to Seth. Sims had tried to phase to help, and Tupkuk's wolfborn had gotten in the way.

Besides the fact that Seth's new sister had joined their ranks and was smaller than usual, no one was saying a thing, not even Leah and his mother, both of which had passed from the 'grateful Seth was alive' stage to the 'furious and barely speaking to him without cursing' stage. Seth had never known his mother knew the language that she'd been throwing around the last twenty-four hours.

There was a whine in the kitchen, followed by the tapping of nails against the floor, and Seth couldn't help the excitement that filled him, excitement that increased when the scent that was both Sims and she-wolf flooded his nostrils.

The tapping stopped, and then silence.

"Sims?" Seth called, craning his head to try and see into the hall, hearing the softest sound of paws compressing carpeting right outside of his room. "Sims, is that you?"

Sims was small for the Pack, but she was still very big for a wolf. Therefore when she poked her head around the corner of the doorway to Seth's room, her lowered dark chocolate muzzle was still at doorknob height, her ears flattened against her head in stress. When Seth shifted to get a better look, grunting from the discomfort of sitting up more, she backed up slightly, now hiding in the hall.

Despite his pain, Seth chuckled at that. "Bunny Lop, you're not hiding from me, are you?" the Beta asked, his voice rough and low in his throat but still the Seth that she knew so well. In the hall there was a low, warning growl, and a grin began to spread across Seth's face.

"I know what you said, Sims," he told her, and then his voice softened. "Samantha? Everyone else got to meet you. If I have to crawl out there in the hall, I will. Meeting a new Packmate is the best part."

The growling lowered into a quiet whine, but she didn't appear immediately. Seth's smile widened. "Bunny Lop," he promised gently, closing his eyes. "I'm not going to make fun of your tail."

Her whine stopped, and then her nose poked back around the corner. Tan ears more upright than before, Sims slipped into the room, padding silently around to the far side of the bed. Seth opened his eyes when she stood near the wall, shaking slightly, and his face softened. "Oh honey, you're beautiful," Seth told her, voice thickening in emotion. He tried to sit up more fully in bed so that he could reach for her, but then Seth hissed in pain, bending over and putting a hand to his freshly closed wound. Sims whined again, and a cold wet nose touched his side, snuffing deeply at where he held himself.

"I'm okay," Seth promised, but he was paler now than a moment ago. Still his smile grew as he took her muzzle in his hand, lifting it gently as he bent over even more and dropped a kiss onto her nose. The new she-wolf blinked in surprise and then sneezed. Seth froze, realizing that his face was wet, and then he chuckled. "I suppose I deserved that," he decided fairly. Sims shifted away from him, circled the room nervously, and then she left. A few moments later she returned, flattening herself into the wall beneath the window. Seth watched her silently, watched her whine and go back to pacing.

She growled at the Alpha when he stepped into the doorway, stiffening and showing her teeth until Jake moved enough into the room to leave the doorway free. Immediately she left again, and they could hear her pacing the kitchen, her nails clicking against the linoleum tiling.

"She's so nervous…how long has she been like this?" Seth asked, his handsome face a frown now. "Jake? Has she spent the whole time acting like this?"

The Alpha shook his head, exhaling heavily. "No. No, actually this is pretty good. A couple days ago there would have been no way she could have stayed inside like this, but she does better if Embry or I'm around. Embry because he calms her down and me because she gets focused on putting me in my place every five minutes. But she's having a hard time keeping herself calm, and she gets confused easily. We think it's because of the Huntington's…her mother's disease. We've been-"

"Wait, wait, back up. She was _sick_ and you still let her _phase_?" Seth growled dangerously and Jake leveled him a flat glare when Seth's eyes flashed. "Jake, what the hell were you thinking?"

"We didn't _know_, Seth, she never told any of us," Jake replied in a hard voice. "Not even Embry, or at least not that he remembers. She remembers telling him a couple times, but when we pulled it from her thoughts, it was too late. Cullen did a blood test and it's not in her genetic makeup anymore, so the physical aspects of her disease have healed. But mentally…she's just not where she should have been. Samantha seemed fine, but you know as well as I do how traumatic phasing is. She's healthy, Seth, but her mind just struggles with things we take for granted. The Packmind confuses her, and so far she hasn't been able to relax long enough to make phasing back to human stick. When she keeps popping back and forth, she _really_ gets confused and starts biting everyone…"

The Alpha exhaled heavily and leaned back against the wall, arms crossing over his muscled chest. "I don't know if she'll ever be normal. If it's because of the disease, the way her brain is wired just might never be able to adapt to the phasing. Maybe if I could have been there the first time in Calgary, maybe if those damn wolfborn hadn't pushed their way in…but it's done now and can't be changed. She can't focus, Seth, that's why she's so nervous. And the more of us that are phased, the worse it gets. We've been running patrols on foot just to try and make things easier for her. But I'm not going to lie, it's been pretty hard on her so far."

Seth let out a softly pained noise at that, a noise that was echoed by a low growl from the hall. A dark chocolate nose poked in the doorway again, and her lips wrinkled back from her fangs warningly. Jake smiled slightly and sank down to his heels so that their heads were level.

"He's my Beta," Jake told her, almost managing to sound apologetic, but falling just shy of it. "He needs to know."

The she-wolf lunged at him unexpectedly, her lightning fast jaws slicing into Jake's arm and causing Seth to curse in surprise. But Jake had seen it coming and even as she pulled back, he snagged her muzzle in one large hand, gripping her by the ruff and keeping his fingers wrapped around her muzzle to hold it closed. "Stop biting me, Samantha," Jake said, his voice firm but his grip on her as gentle as he was able. "If you bite someone human, you'll take their arm off."

Sims glared at him, growling low in her throat with her fur bristling until Jake let her go. She snarled and backed out of the room stiff legged, causing Jake to sigh. "That's the fifth time she's bitten one of us since yesterday," the Alpha told Seth tiredly. "Me twice, Paul twice, and she snagged Embry once as well. We think that was an accident, because he surprised her waking her up. She's…skittish, to say the least."

Seth cursed again, rubbing his face unhappily. "You shouldn't have let her do this, Jake. Not her, not for me. I'm the one that fucked up, you should have just-"

"Just what? Let you die?" Jake asked flatly. "I thought about it, but it was her decision to make. And this may be hard, but losing you would have killed us, Seth. I told her that I'd support her decision either way, so leave it be. Now we just have to help her."

"Jake…is she…is she like Embry…?" Guilt and regret made his words stick in his throat, but Jake rose and walked over to Seth's bed, putting his hand on Seth's shoulder.

"No, man," Jake promised. "She's like Leah. Her wolf and herself are blended seamlessly. She's just having a hard time adjusting. The longer it goes since she last tried to phase back, the better she is."

"You're not going to let her stay wolf, are you, Jake?" Seth demanded, and then he grimaced when he moved too much.

"Take it easy, Seth," Jake ordered, his voice softening as Sims whined in the living room. "And no, I'm not going to let her stay like this, but I think that I'm not asking her to phase back again until she's calmer. Another day or two, maybe a week…who knows, maybe a little more time is all she needs."

"What about school? She's got-"

"I'm not letting her back into school until she can maintain, Seth," Jake said firmly. "We'll pull strings, do whatever it takes to keep her in good standing, but I can't let her back in like this. Enough, Seth, let me worry about it. You can worry about Leah and Sue, because any time now they're going to stop being worried over you and start realizing how fucking mad they are at you."

"Yeah, that started already," Seth mumbled, and Jake snorted.

"Serves you right, you scared the shit out of all of us," the Alpha growled, before Jake suddenly grinned devilishly at his Beta. "Plus there's a certain redhead who's furious no one will let her in the house to see you, Seth, so you can worry about her too. Apparently she's _suspicious_." Jake drew quotations in the air at the last word and Seth looked at Jake in horror.

"Hell," Seth moaned. "Oh _hell_, I was on the phone with Chancy. What am I going to tell her?"

"How about the truth? You're a dumbass that _will_ listen to his Alpha next time," Jake said pointedly, and then the Alpha sighed, gesturing at the portable phone on folding chair that made up Seth's new nightstand. "Listen, I've got to go, Jared's a mess and he needs me there. Just try to keep her inside, and if she takes off, call one of us. _Do not go after her_, do you understand me, Seth?"

Seth frowned but nodded unhappily. "Yeah, I got it…Hey, Jake? Tell Jared…tell him…"

Jake's hand squeezed Seth's shoulder one last time. "He already knows," Jake promised. The Alpha left, although Seth could hear him pause in the kitchen. "Don't bite him too, Apple Girl, but bite the hell out of anyone that tries to hurt him." A low snarl followed by Jake's sigh. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. You don't take orders from me. Just please stay here and watch out for him, okay? Not an order, just a suggestion-oww! _Fuck_, Samantha, it was just a fucking suggestion! _Hell_, woman…"

From his bedroom, Seth could hear her snuff and Jake mutter as he stomped away. Seth would have laughed if it hadn't have been so damn upsetting that she was even a wolf in the first place. Yes, he would have loved having her as a sister, but not like this, not with her not herself and unable to phase back. It occurred to Seth just what this could cost her, and it broke his heart for her. All because of him. All because of _his_ mistakes.

Seth had carried the burden of responsibility many times in his young life, but rarely had he felt the weight of failure on his shoulders. It was an uncomfortable, crushing thing.

He should have killed the leech, instead of nearly the opposite happening. He should have done better, he should have known better, and as much as they were teasing back and forth, Jake was right. Seth should have listened to his Alpha, who _had_ known better at the time. Damn...well Seth knew now, now when it was too late to take it all back. Some the hardest lessons were learned that way.

Miserable and so uncomfortable it made him sick to his stomach, Seth rested in bed, his arm draped across his face. After a few minutes the Beta heard footsteps padding down the hall again. A wet nose wedged its way into the hollow beneath his bicep and there was another whine, this time softer and accompanied by a low snuffling noise.

"Samantha? I'm so sorry…" Seth whispered into his arm. "I'm sorry that I was stupid. I'm so sorry that you had to do this…but thank you. _Thank you_. And I promise that we'll all do whatever we can to make this better for you."

Her tail wagged briefly, but she grew distracted looking out the window. Embry was on the other side, pausing in his patrol to peer in and check on her. Sims put her paws up on the window sill so that she and Embry were at head height, and when he smiled and placed his hand against the window, she batted her tan colored paw against the glass so that it was at the same place. She yipped loudly, causing Seth to wince and the man standing outside to grin.

At least Embry grinned until she jumped through the window, deciding that it would be better outside with Embry than inside with Seth. A moment later the dark chocolate wolf slunk back through the house, her expression decidedly unhappy. When Seth raised an eyebrow, Sims growled, and he chuckled at her.

"Hey, don't be mad at me, Bunny Lop," Seth told her with a lazy smile, his eyes starting to grow heavy as tiredness set in again. "You're the one that just gave Embry a glass bath when he's got to go run patrol."

The dark chocolate colored wolf huffed and shook her body, shaking off bits of glass onto the carpet. Seth could see the confusion in her eyes, and she whined unhappily, lying down of the floor next to the bed. But when Seth's arm draped down the length of her back, his fingers stroking soothingly into her fur, she finally started to relax. A little longer, and her eyelids began to droop, her tail thumping the carpet slowly.

"See, Sims?" Seth said quietly. "Things aren't so bad. Everything will be okay, sweetie, just stick with me. Stick with me and try to stay calm. Don't worry about what you are, just try to remember what you _want_ to be. That's what always helped me. Everything's okay…just hang out…here with me…"

Her tail thumped one more time before Seth fell asleep, his hand resting in her fur over the edge of the bed. And later, when Sue Clearwater found her son still alive and well and sleeping in his bed, she didn't even blink at the fact Seth was sleeping with his hand on a naked and glass covered Samantha Carter's ass.

Sue was learning to expect this sort of thing.

* * *

Renesmee had asked permission to go to Shane Qahla's funeral. She had been told no.

This time the little girl didn't plead her case or throw a fit because she knew that arguing with her parents was wrong. Renesmee had promised to be better behaved, so she went upstairs and read a book instead, determined not to be unhappy about it. Her thoughts must have given her away because eventually she heard her parent whispering to each other in low tones, and a few moments later her mother came into her room. Renesmee's hair had been braided that morning, but the rubber band had begun to slip and the braid had become messy. So as Renesmee read, her mother went into the bathroom and fetched a brush and sat down beside her.

"Renesmee?" Bella asked, her voice chiming like music when she spoke. "Do you understand why you can't go to the funeral today?"

"No, Mommy," Renesmee shook her head. "I can hypothesize, but I'm not sure exactly why."

Bella nodded as she started unbraiding Renesmee's hair, her cool hard fingers carefully untangling the little girl's bronze curls. "It's because we can't be there with you, sweetie. And your father and I both think that you're too young to go to a funeral without us with you. Death is a very sad and complicated thing."

There was a slight change in Bella's voice from her normal tone, and it caused Renesmee to turn around and look at her mother curiously. Renesmee put her hand on her mother's arm and showed Bella her change in tone, and showed Bella that she was confused what that change in tone meant. Her mother sighed and began brushing her hair, something Bella had always seemed to take pleasure in doing.

"I do like brushing your hair, Renesmee," her mother agreed. "As for the rest…you're almost four now, and your grandfather says that after your last growth spurt that you're close to ten physically. I know you're very advanced, Nessie, but ten really isn't very old. You're my daughter and I'm just not ready for you to have to face certain things."

"Mommy, I've seen death before," Renesmee said softly, thinking back to all the things that she herself had killed and eaten. "I understand that it makes people very sad."

Bella was quiet and then finally she sighed, continuing to brush Renesmee's hair back from the little girl's face. "Renesmee, sweetie, you're a half-vampire. Your father and I just don't feel that it's appropriate for you to be alone at a funeral where someone was killed by a vampire. Jack won't be there, and when Jake called to see if you were coming, he sounded really distracted. We don't want you to be alone and we're worried that someone might not treat you very kindly, that's why we're saying no."

Renesmee blinked in surprise, because it had never once occurred to her that her Packmates would do anything _but_ treat her kindly. They were her Packmates, and that meant that they all cared for each other and belonged together. She belonged with them…didn't she? Renesmee's hand was still on her mother's arm, and Bella made a hushing sound.

"Of course you belong with them," Bella promised, hugging Renesmee tightly. "But you also belong to us too. Most of the time that will be good, sweetie, having so many people that care about you. But sometimes it could get…a little more complicated. The wolves were made to protect against vampires, Nessie. The fact that someone they loved was killed, and that Seth got hurt so badly, is going to make them touchy. Your father and I just don't want you caught in the middle of that."

"Okay, Mommy."

Okay, because there wasn't much she could say to it. Renesmee _was_ half-vampire, something had had always been difficult for her, but it was not something that she had ever been ashamed of. If anything, it was her human side that was shameful, that brought on such embarrassing things like hygiene and fidgeting and imperfection in movement and action. It was being only half of a vampire instead of a whole one that had always given Renesmee problems. It had never occurred to her that being half of a human instead of a whole one would ever do the same.

"Mommy?" Renesmee asked suddenly. "If the wolves are made to protect against the vampires, and I'm a half-vampire, why did Mister Jack imprint on me?"

Bella's brow creased as she thought about that answer. "I'm not sure, Nessie. We've asked ourselves the same thing a lot the last few months, and between Jake and your grandfather, they have several theories. But when it comes down to it, the important thing is that your Jack did imprint on you, and that can't be changed. We just all have to learn how to adjust to it now." Bella paused and then smiled ruefully. "Maybe you should ask him, Renesmee. Jack might have a better answer for you."

Renesmee nodded and then she sighed disconsolately. "I just wish that there was something that I could do to make everyone happier, but I don't know what I can do."

Bella gave her daughter another hug and then set to braiding her hair, a smile on the vampire's face. "You're a kind person, Nessie, and it's good that you think about others. How about this: I'll tell you everything I remember about the Quileute people from the bonfire Jake took me too, and then we can decide what might make your Pack feel better. Does that sound good?"

"Yes, Mommy."

It sounded very good, at least in theory. Unfortunately Bella had been a vampire for too long and her memory was fuzzy about most of the legends, and the ones she did remember, the ones of Taha Aki and Utlapa and the Third Wife, started to make both of them uncomfortable. It was one thing to hear a legend about how terrible something was, and it was another to hear that legend when oneself was the terrible thing being spoken about. Bella realized halfway through that she had made a mistake, and she desperately tried to spin the stories in a positive light, but finally Bella sighed and admitted that she should have let Jacob do this part. She was sorry if she had upset Renesmee.

Renesmee wasn't upset, necessarily, but she had more questions now than ever.

With her hair freshly braided, they went downstairs and Bella suggested that maybe instead of trying to do something nice for all the wolves, that maybe Renesmee could do something nice for one in particular, like Seth. That sounded good to Renesmee, and she hugged her mother for helping her figure out something productive to help her pass the time until the funeral was over.

The little girl wasn't supposed to hear, but she was fairly certain that her father joined them in the kitchen, that her mother whispered to her father that this whole thing used to be a lot easier. Renesmee was far too polite to ask what her mother had meant.

What Renesmee _really_ wanted to do was to make Seth a Spiderman cake, but according to her father, Seth was only allowed to eat semi-solid foods. After a brief but fierce debate over whether squishiness constituted semi-solidness, Renesmee conceded defeat. Since a Spiderman cake was out of the question, the little girl was left with making a "get well soon" card for her Beta, a task to which Renesmee felt she was particularly ill-suited for. Having known very few people in her life capable of being sick, Renesmee had only had the occasion of making one other "get well soon" card when her human grandfather had gotten a cold last winter. While she had been proud of it, her Grandpa Charlie had been rather embarrassed by it, and had subsequently concealed any illness from her since.

Deciding that perhaps she should cut down her number of card pages to ten instead of her grandfather's thirty-two, Renesmee gathered her construction supplies and laid them out on the dining room table, making sure that the sparkle glue and puffy paint were properly capped.

Renesmee had always been very good about keeping her sparkle glue and puffy paint off of the furniture, but her Uncle Emmett seemed to take particularly sadistic pleasure in sparkle gluing things to her Aunt Rose's car, inside and out, and her Uncle Jasper had been known to destroy multiple racks of haute couture dresses by strategically placed smilies drawn in puffy paint.

Renesmee was halfway through the fourth page of Seth's card, where she had been copying down the lines from her poems that Seth had managed to stay awake during, the ones that he _must_ have enjoyed the most, when a human walked into the coven. It was Dr. Foster, Carlisle's protégé, following at the heels of both of her grandparents. When Misty saw Renesmee at the kitchen table, the doctor gave the little girl a warm smile and headed her way.

"Hello, Nessie," Misty said, sounding happy to see Renesmee despite the tiredness in the doctor's eyes. "What are you working on, kid?" Misty was a tall woman, and it was no trouble for her at all to lean over Renesmee's shoulder, peering down. "Wow, that's one impressive get well soon card."

The scent of fresh blood always made Renesmee's nostrils widen, but the little girl plugged her nose for a half a second to break the scent, pretending to survey her handiwork, and then she smiled prettily up at Misty. "This is for my friend Seth, Dr. Foster," Renesmee replied cheerfully. "He was very sick, but he's doing better now."

"Oh? Would I know him? Was he at the hospital?" the adult asked curiously, and Renesmee glanced at her grandfather for help. Misty noticed and before Carlisle had a chance to say anything, Misty gave Carlisle an exasperated look. "Ahh. The adrenaline patient that I'm supposed to know nothing about. Gotcha. Well, anyways, it looks very nice, Nessie. Is that Spiderman?"

"Yes, Dr. Foster. Seth thinks that Spiderman is the best action hero," Renesmee informed the doctor, and Misty chuckled, ruffling her curls.

"Yeah well, you can tell this Seth when he feels better that Spiderman is cool, but real superheroes can fly without finger goo." Misty turned around and limped into the kitchen, where Esme had already sat down and poured Misty a drink.

The scent of expensive whisky cut through the smell of blood and the slight heat in Renesmee's throat immediately went away.

"Bringing out the good stuff, are we?" Misty was teasing in the next room, and it didn't pass Renesmee's attention that her parents immediately gravitated into the kitchen as well. They had both finished their 'get well soon' cards over an hour ago, but they were vampires and vampires could do that sort of thing.

"You've had a bad few days, Misty," Carlisle said sympathetically from near the sink. "We know you've been feeling strained, so Esme picked that up for you this morning as a pick me up."

"You know, Esme," the doctor joked. "If I could get a bottle of Crown Royal Xr every time my glass was half empty, my glass would start looking a lot more full…you know…because of the whiskey…never mind, I'll just be drinking now."

Two shots later, at least for the doctor and Esme, who had learned to stomach drinking liquids other than blood while in polite company, they fell into the easily ignorable conversation that adults always did, mostly about the cases that Carlisle was taking and some of the coworkers that they were having problems with. Renesmee was paying more attention to the card she was making than anything, trying to remember suitable discussions that she and Seth had shared and use personal aspects from those discussions to make his card more personalized. Nine pages in, Renesmee was running out of ideas, so she started drawing snowflakes in white puffy paint and coloring around them in blue sparkle glue.

"What if we leave?" Misty was asking, sounding exhausted. "Couldn't that be an option? I love the hospital, but there's plenty of work in New York, and the city is a big place…"

"If we did, Edward and I would have to stay here…it's complicated…"

Renesmee frowned at that and started to get up to go into the kitchen when suddenly an overwhelming rush of relief filled her. The relief was so strong that she sank down into her chair, almost overcome by it. Then following the relief was sadness, a deep, wounded sadness that disappeared nearly as fast as it had come. Startled, Renesmee thought about asking her parents what it might mean, but then she felt normal again, and her grandfather was busy talking about blood cell counts with Dr. Foster anyways.

The little girl thought about calling Jacob to ask him her questions, but then she decided that her wolf would tell her if there was anything she needed to know. She was imprinted now, and she had helped save Seth, and she was a part of all of them. She was sure that her mother was mistaken, and that they didn't mind that she was half vampire. Vampires like Neel were bad, but most of them were good, and when she was older and her Pack realized that she was an exceptional source of knowledge about these kinds of things, she'd make sure to let them know everything she could. And even if they _were_ nervous about her vampire half, education was the key to understanding, at least according to her family. Opinions could always be changed.

Smiling because she could imagine just how proud Seth would be to get his card, Renesmee pulled out the big guns, got down to business, and started to draw a spider in red and black puffy paint.

* * *

It had been one hell of a day, and it was barely three in the afternoon. Considering the last week's activities, Paul figured this was a decided improvement.

The Beta was alive, the imprint was human again (at least for now), and the funeral was over. Thank goodness Renesmee had been absent, because after watching Jared lay Bradley Jennings out cold for just _looking_ at Brady wrong, Paul wasn't sure that on this day, that Jared could have ignored the fact their newest imprint was a half-vampire. Jared was as loyal to his Pack as any of them and was normally was okay with the half-human child in their Pack. But having a new and still unstable she-wolf in their ranks, combined with a hurt Beta and Jared's own personal loss, it was just too much for the wolf.

He wouldn't have been cruel to her, but Paul wasn't sure that Jared would have treated their newest imprint with the sensitivity the child required. When he was badly hurt, Jared had a habit of both viciously protecting and verbally lashing out at the ones closest to him. The Third's instincts told him that for today at least, their newest imprint would not have been an exception.

Paul followed his mate into the cabin, grunting as he kicked his old scuffed pair of dress shoes off of his feet near the door. Cassie was already headed to the bathroom, peeling the dress she was wearing over her head as she walked past the bed. Exhaustedly, Paul tugged his tie loose, feeling as if it had been a noose around his neck. Or maybe it was just a tie. Nooses meant impending death and Paul had experienced enough of that in the last few days to last him a lifetime.

"Hey Cass, is there anything safe to eat in here?" Paul asked as he walked into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator, trying to remember the last time either of them had eaten something.

"Probably not the milk," she called back, and Paul flicked the milk carton, noticing that it didn't exactly splash when he did.

"Good call," he muttered, grimacing at the smell as he dumped the lumpy stuff out in the sink.

This was the first time the Third had actually been home long enough to consider eating. Or sleeping. Or downing several bottles of antacids. The last several days had been one nightmare after another, and if it hadn't been for how badly his best friend needed him, Paul would have long since crawled into his own bed, pulled his mate into his arms and hid under the covers for a month. Instead he had barely said two words to her, too wrapped up in trying to keep their Pack from crumbling apart between his fingertips. Considering Cassie had been doing the same for Collin, neither of them had even a moment to themselves. But the funeral was over, and when too many people shoved themselves into the Qahla family home, intent on expressing their sympathies, Jared had quite firmly told Paul and Cassie to go home and get some rest. Jared's brother would still be dead tomorrow if Paul wanted to come back and stare at Jared some more.

Paul hadn't let that hurt him. The Third knew exactly how hard his best friend took losing the ones that he loved, and it was clear that Jared wasn't handling Shane's death well. Jared hadn't let Kim or Brady more than five feet away from him since he had gotten back from Alaska, as if the other wolf thought that he'd lose them too if he did.

Speaking of loved ones, Paul's loved one was sniffling in the bathroom. Frowning, Paul tossed his dark button down shirt on top of the black dress draped across the bed, stepping into the open bathroom doorway. "Cassie? Are you okay?"

The tiny blonde woman was fixing her hair, hair that she had recently cut short and styled in a spiky pixie cut that was far trendier than any haircut Paul would ever have. Paul didn't care if her hair was short or long or blonde or green, but he did care that she was sniffling. It was clear that she was trying to hide it, so much so that she nodded with a tiny smile and made the pretense of washing her face to cover her tears. Paul watched her, letting his eyes play over her pale skin, the curve of her hips, the red lingerie. She always wore red for him now, even under a dress intended for mourning. She was too skinny again, but Paul wasn't one to talk. The separation had been rough on him as well, so rough that Cassie wasn't the only one that had lost weight.

The curve of her waist, the roundness of her hip. Her, just her, and _damn_ he loved her.

It took a few minutes for Cassie to scrub off her makeup and tears and to put her smile back in place, and by then Paul had stepped deeper into the bathroom, one hand on her hip and the other arm wrapped securely around her waist. Cassie looked drained and there were a few tiny stress lines on the corner of her eyes that the now washed-off makeup had previously covered. The last few years had taken their toll on her, and it was no wonder that someone who was looking could see it on her face.

"Hey, Paul?" Cassie asked, and Paul grunted tiredly in reply, his nose buried in spiky blonde hair as he breathed in her scent deeply. "Paul, are _you_ okay?"

Was he okay?

"No, Cass, not really," Paul admitted against her hair, hoping that in holding her this tightly, that his most important person didn't break. The skin of her back felt cool and soft against his chest and stomach, and he tugged her hips flush with his. "Actually, I'm pretty fucking awful. There are too many things to do, too many places to be, and all I can think about is you…" Paul's voice cracked and he cleared his throat to cover it. "Hell, Cass, it could have been _you_."

"Instead of Seth, it could have been you, too," Cassie said quietly, turning in his arms and resting her forehead against his heart. "But it wasn't, Paul."

"Yeah, but…if we had just gotten here sooner…"

"Paul, it wasn't your fault," his mate told him gently, and Paul snarled wordlessly in disagreement. It was his mistake. It was all of their mistakes, and it was all of them that shared the blame.

"Cassie, everything that we are is made to protect our people from these things," Paul finally growled, rolling around so that he was leaning against the sink, keeping her tucked closely to him. "Our entire lives center around it, our entire bodies change to accommodate it, who we are gets shoved aside for who we _need_ to be to accomplish it. If we fail at this, if we can't protect those that need protecting, then why the _hell_ did we lose everything to become such freaks?"

It was stress and anger speaking, and he really didn't mean to be snarling at her, but he needed…he just needed—

"I love you, Paul," Cassie told him simply, holding him tightly. "Everything's going to get better, it always does if we want it to badly enough. We'll both be okay."

_That_ was what he needed.

Paul exhaled heavily as the bond between them tightened down, grew stronger because she might be small, but her arms could wrap so tightly around his waist. There had been a night not that long ago where Paul's mistakes had been too much for him to take, a night where he had stayed a wolf curled up in his kitchen, had laid in his bed alone and determined to be better. He had to be perfect, had to do everything right, make no mistakes.

But now Paul wasn't alone, and he didn't have to be perfect with Cassie. She'd still love him no matter how much he screwed up, that was who she was, and it was what he needed so badly right then. Big and small, hard and soft, the perfectionist and the everythingist. They would never be each other's equal, but they would always be each other's complement. They were Mated, and the wolf inside Paul told him that was permanent. Together, they could love and fight and struggle together. Paul didn't have to have a fairy tale, he just needed to know that he had her at the end of the day. He just needed—

"Supernaturally spectacular."

Paul blinked and pulled back, looking down at his mate in confusion. "Huh?"

"I don't like the term 'freak', Paul," Cassie decided firmly. "It's very open-ended and has a negative connotation and is far too pessimistic to encompass the actuality of your enhanced state of being. I prefer the term 'supernaturally spectacular'. It's far more positive and is much more marketable slogan wise."

"Marketable?" The Third's eyebrow rose and his mate winked at him.

"Yep," Cassie said playfully. "Marketing is a very important part of my new business plan. I'm planning on selling your supernaturally spectacular services for this fabulous pair of Gucci ankle boots-"

She yelped when Paul growled and snagged her up, tossing her over his shoulder, and then she sighed contentedly when he dropped her onto their bed and followed her down. Food was forgotten in favor of comfort of a better sort, and when that smile stayed on her face (because his imprint could smile through the worst kinds of hurt and pain), Paul made it his mission to keep that smile there, to make her happier on this sad, sad day.

Paul's mate would never love sex for the feeling of it, but she was growing addicted to the intimacy of it, and even after being gone so long it was natural to fall into an easy, gentle rhythm that suited them both. At its request and her agreement, Paul allowed his wolf to slip through and love their mate along with him, because Paul may have missed her like crazy but his wolf had missed her too. Later on Paul wrapped her up in his arms and listened to her breathing as she slept cuddled close to his chest.

It could have been her, Jake, Paul thought silently to the Alpha across the reservation. Fuck, she walks in the woods all the time. It could have been _her_.

The Alpha's only reply was a low, dangerous growl reverberating through Paul's mind. It wouldn't _ever_ happen again.

* * *

There had been a time when A-Ka-Lat was a sea stack, and the waters not nearly so deep in the crossing between the beach and the island, but as they had changed so many things for the Quileute people, the pale-faces had changed A-Ka-Lat as well. Despite all that he had seen in his long lifetime, there were certain things that would always disturb Jack when he came across them. The changing of a river that had always cut through the land was one of them, but there were many many more. As he swam the waters where the Quillayute River dumped into the ocean, not for the first time did Jack envy T'sikati for having left this world before their homes and their ways had been taken from them piece by piece.

T'sikati found it amusing that he had apparently left this world, considering that he was bobbing with a fishhook in the middle of the ocean. Perhaps if Jack had left the world first and T'sikati had stayed, then they would be able to make it to the island sometime this week.

"Hey Jack!" the wolf swimming off to his left called, cutting off Jack's mental retort to his dead friend. "No offense, but you know we could have taken a boat out here, man."

"Do you believe that the Cold One took a boat when he came out of the waters and killed our people?" Jack asked a bit grumpily, angling so that the heavy winter waves didn't take him too far from his Packmate, feeling annoyance at himself. Yes. They could have taken a boat, couldn't they? From his side, Quil flashed Jack a quick grin. The wolf had been serious and sad all day, up until their Alpha had left them know that their newest she-wolf had finally managed to retain human form again, something that only Seth had managed to bring out in her so far. Their Alpha's relief was nearly intoxicating.

"I just won the bet, man," Quil chuckled, spitting salt water out of his mouth. "That was the first time you've been irritated with one of us since Montana. Everyone else had their money on Collin or Brady, but I'd bet on one of the rest of us. If it helps, I didn't think of it either and my ass has spent the last few months on a boat."

A wave slapped Jack in the face, and he blinked his eyes to force the salt water away. "Perhaps our Third could have informed us that we were amiss," the ancient wolf decided, forcing his frustration at himself and his Packmate away and remembering his place. He had promised the Third that he would do his best to remember his place. "It is the Third's way to guide his wolves in all manner of things."

"Blame it on Paul?" Quil snickered, his form disappearing behind a cresting wave. "Sounds good to me."

Jack allowed his lips to curve into a smile. There had been a time he had taken much respectful ribbing at the hands of his more submissive Packmates. With the loss of dominance came the freedom of having someone else in charge, of being able to trust in their guidance and their ways. In truth it was the Alpha who had agreed to Jack's request to be accompanied to this sacred place, but Jack would rather stick his nose in an anthill than tease his Alpha. The Third, for all Paul's hard stares, made Jack far more comfortable and more inclined to enjoy his lack of authority.

The midwinter winds had stirred up the water, so there was no worry of anyone seeing them or hearing their voices over the height of the waves, but as they swam around the north side of the island, both wolves grew quiet. The land had changed from the last time Jack had been here, so many years ago. That had been a different day, the last day that Jack had been Tlokwali, and it was with great trepidation that he ventured onto their sacred grounds again. But the Alpha had given leave and there was one of the true Tlokwali to accompany him.

Plus, if Jack's worries were founded, this was not a time to joke or play, not even with a fellow Packmate. The ancient wolf hoped very dearly that he was not correct.

The northern side of the island was off limits to tourists, and it was to that side that Jack swam. Even for a wolf it was difficult to get to the place that he was headed for, and it took some effort for Jack to haul himself out of the water at the sheer base of the northernmost cliffs. The years of water had worn the surface of the cliff base smooth, and Jack's fingers dug into the stone for purchase, the rock crumbling beneath his strength. The slope of this particular cliff was outwards instead of inwards, and Jack had to dangle the last several meters of the climb before his hands found what he was he looking for.

As Jack hauled himself up and over the rocky ledge, the heavier wolf below him followed with more difficulty. "Jack?" Quil grunted. "Are you sure you're a wolf?" Quil asked, cursing as he slipped and Jack had to grab his arm, pulling Quil up onto the ledge as well. "Cause you looked more like a monkey to me."

The older wolf smiled slightly at that. "If I am a monkey, then it is at my Alpha's allowance only, Packmate. A wolf is only seemly when running _beneath_ the trees."

Quil snorted and then looked around, dropping down to his haunches in an instinctive need for balance. Behind them the Pacific Ocean rose and fell with the incoming tide, the waves crashing against the rocks far below. In front of them was a shallow depression in the cliff side, as high as two men tall but only a few steps deep. Instead of the relatively smooth cliff facing, it looked as if there had been a rockslide on the deepest part of the depression, keeping it from cutting any further into the island. Jack walked to the back of the depression, touching his hand lightly to the rock there.

It had been a long time since he had last touched this place. A deep sadness overtook Jack, and the ancient wolf remained there silently, not realizing that he had pressed his forehead to the stone, nor remembering for how long. The wolf at his back had waited quietly, speaking only after Jack exhaled in relief and whispered a soft prayer of guidance to those who had passed from one world to the next.

"Jack?" Quil asked quietly, sounding as if he was pretty sure he knew the answer. "What is this place?"

The ancient wolf let his fingertips brush the rock again, and then he turned to his Packmate, voice soft. "They say that A-Ka-Lat is the source, the _heart_ of the spiritual power of our people. Where we stand there was once a cave, deep enough to touch directly into the heart of A-Ka-Lat. It was a sacred place, where even the Tlokwali and the most revered of the Kwòlíyoť would not dare venture. It was a place for our spiritual leaders only."

Jack's face tightened, his jaw set and his eyes angry as he continued. "It is the place where a Cold One took my woman and unborn child, where its scent could not be found no matter how many times we searched A-Ka-Lat or the nearby beaches. Here is the place where my child lost its life as poison spread through my woman's veins. Here she cried out to me for days, but I never heard, and I never came."

Quil whistled low between his teeth, grimacing. "Hell, man. Hell, I'm so sorry."

Jack grew quiet for a while, because speaking was hard, but his voice was calm when he spoke again. "It was the only place that our enemy could hide in our midst and not be found. My Alpha, he had sensed the Cold One was near and had searched endlessly to find it, but it was only in hindsight that we learned what had happened. It was too late then, but we came back here and we sealed off this place. We asked the earth to sigh, and when it did, it closed the roof upon the floor of this cave, closing it forever. As shaman it was my duty to protect the spiritual powers of our people, but I closed it off instead with my Alpha's help. We could not risk another Cold One to steal upon us unawares."

"Your family is buried here," Quil said sadly, rising to his own feet. He touched his hand to the place Jack had previously, and Jack was pleased when his Packmate also spoke a soft blessing, asking the ancestors to guide Jack's family's steps. Then Quil squeezed Jack's shoulder. "Thank you for sharing this with me, Jack."

"Brother to brother," Jack murmured the ancient wordage, and Quil nodded.

"What is yours to bear is mine, and mine to yours when I am burdened," Quil murmured in reply, causing Jack to look at him in surprise. Quil smiled slightly. "Your old Alpha didn't destroy _all_ of the records, Jack. Not all tradition has been lost to us, and Jake has had me digging through what we have left since he took you into our Pack."

Jack didn't understand and it must have shown on his face. "He wants to know you, Jack, and do right by you as your Alpha," Quil explained. "You don't have to look so shocked at that. We all want to understand you, Jack, the good stuff and the bad. "

The ancient wolf lowered his head. Then he raised it and murmured, "That is a kindness that is greatly appreciated."

Quil nodded and then grew more serious as his eyes swept over the depression. "We came here to see if that bastard Neel was using this place as a hideout, didn't we?" Quil stated, his expression hard. "It would have given us some answers as to how he snuck up on us the way he did, but I won't lie. The thought of that bastard going near here makes me sick. This is your place, Jack, our people's place. That fucker doesn't have the right to have invaded here too."

Jack hesitated, and then he made a decision to trust his Packmate. "We're here for another reason," Jack admitted. "Before you, there have been only two others that I have told of this. One is our Alpha, and the other…" He trailed off uncomfortably.

"The other is Rico," Quil finished with a grunt. The younger wolf rubbed his face, groaning. "Shit, Jack. If it had used this place, it would have meant Rico's on Neel's side."

"It was not a thought that rested easy on my heart, Packmate," Jack said quietly. "But even now our scent will reach our brothers' and sisters' noses. To hide on A-Ka-Lat, the Cold One that hurt our Beta would have had to remove many of these rocks and would have had to hide more deeply than where we stand. Rico knows this place and how it was used, but this place remains the same as it was the day I left it. There was no betrayal from this, and as far as I can remember, I have not said anything else that puts our people at risk." The ancient wolf frowned unhappily. "At least that is what I believe. I have had times where I've been…confused."

Quil looked as if he was going to say something, but then he nodded. "It's okay, man," Quil said. "You've been alone a long time. No one's going to blame you for talking to the one person that would listen. Anyways, now we know there's someplace else, somewhere else they can come from." Quil looked out across the ocean. "Can't they just hide out there? Just hide in the water until they are ready to attack us?"

Jack tilted his head and thought about it. "They never did before, but that does not mean that they never will. They will cross the water but not stay in it forever. But…there is room for many Cold Ones in an ocean, Packmate." Quil shuddered at that mental image and Jack smiled slightly. "Our task is done, brother," Jack told Quil. "We may leave whenever you are ready."

"Are _you_ ready, Jack?" Quil asked, understanding in his eyes as he settled down on the ledge, facing the ocean. "It's been five hundred years, man. We can stay." Jack touched his fingers once more to the rock in front of him, and then nodded in gratitude. Five hundred years was a very, very long time.

And so they stayed.

* * *

Her wolf had come unannounced to their home, but he had waited downwind from Renesmee's nose and had moved too quietly for her ears, waiting for his thoughts to be noticed by her father. If he was not to be allowed entrance that evening, Jack did not want to disappoint her.

It was Bella who had gone into the woods to tell Jack he was welcome, and Renesmee was waiting on the front porch for him. She had been waiting for a while. For the last few hours the little girl had felt the occasional surge of sadness between herself and her wolf, and so she had tried to think of something that might make him feel better when he came to see her. Renesmee was so preoccupied with deciding what would cheer him up, that she didn't notice that she _knew_ without any doubt that he was coming, despite the fact that he had rarely come to see her unbidden before.

Instead she tried to decide if a wolf like hers would prefer strawberry ice cream to mint chocolate chip, and she grew frustrated at the realization that one scoop of each was culinarily unsatisfactory. When Jack followed Renesmee's mother across the yard, Renesmee gave her wolf her best smile and asked, "Red or green, Mister Jack?"

He blinked at her, seeming surprised at her question, and then he smiled slightly. "Pícha, Renesmee."

"I was thinking strawberry as well, Mister Jack," Renesmee decided, nodding her head seriously before returning into the house. With her mother and her wolf at her heels, Renesmee went into the kitchen, where her grandparents and her father were still gathered, speaking to a now rather inebriated Misty. The lone human was attacking the carton of chocolate ice cream with a vengeance, although Misty paused in her attack when she realized someone else was in the room. The young doctor looked up at Jack in surprise, her oversized spoon still wedged in her mouth.

"Mister Jack, this is my grandfather's peer, Dr. Foster," Renesmee said politely. "Dr. Foster, this is Mister Jack. He's my-" Renesmee hesitated a moment and then the little girl smiled at Misty, blushing prettily as she admitted. "He's my best friend."

Misty looked confused at that and glanced over at Renesmee's grandmother, and Esme patted Misty's hand. "Jack's a new friend of the family, Misty," Esme explained smoothly. "Nessie's been enjoying a new face in our ranks."

The doctor pulled her spoon out of her mouth and smiled sheepishly. Misty switched the spoon into her left hand and then leaned over the kitchen island, offering Jack her right. "Nice to meet you Mr….?"

Renesmee had already started retrieving two bowls and two spoons, but she provided helpfully, "Mister Jack doesn't have a last name, Dr. Foster."

Misty raised an eyebrow at that as Jack shyly took her hand, and her father muttered lower than human hearing, "Just tell her something, Jack. Make one up."

"T'ut'upc'as," Jack said calmly, releasing Misty's hand as he repeated it again, "I am Jack T'ut'upc'as."

"T'ut'upc'as?" Misty asked, looking at him curiously. "Is that Quileute? What does that mean?"

"It's Makah for rabbit," Jack informed her, seating himself carefully in one of the chairs at the island. Carlisle covered a laugh by faking a cough, and Renesmee began giggling as she scooped both her and her wolf strawberry ice cream. Jack winked at Renesmee before turning back to the only human in the room.

Misty tilted her head and then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Your name is Jack Rabbit?"

"I am very quick on my feet," Jack promised her truthfully, smiling slightly in thanks as Renesmee handed him his bowl of ice cream. The little girl climbed up in the chair next to her wolf, eyes scanning her surroundings every bite or two, flickering over her grandparents the most and oddly landing on Misty in between vampires.

"You are Cherokee," Jack said eventually, eyes staying on his dessert.

The doctor seemed surprised, and then nodded. "Yes, how can you tell?"

Her wolf shrugged. "Because it is what you are," he replied simply, and when Misty shot him an annoyed look, Jack winked at Renesmee again. "I am friends with one who talks much," her wolf stated calmly, "So we have travelled much in search of ones that he has not spoken to yet. He enjoys learning new tongues, but my Cherokee is limited. What I learned, I learned from a woman named Wahya. Like my friend, her jaws were always moving and she often talked my ears off before I finally managed to escape."

"Okay, now I know he's messing with me," Misty declared to the room of vampires, and Carlisle grinned at her sympathetically.

"Mister Jack, what does 'wahya' mean?" Renesmee asked curiously and Misty narrowed her eyes at Jack again.

"Answer that in any way that's not G-rated and this spoon is getting wedged down your throat," Misty growled, waggling her spoon at him, and Jack gave her another small smile, his eyes half lidded as he continued eating his ice cream.

"It means 'wolf', Renesmee," Edward supplied, having pulled that from Misty's thoughts, and the little girl tilted her head.

"Daddy? I'm not sure that I understand how a conversation between and wolf and a rabbit would involve any sort of inappropriateness. If the wolf was trying to attack the rabbit, if that's why its jaws were moving, then I suppose that it could get violent enough to need-"

"Renesmee!" Her mother's hand covered her mouth before that sentence was done, and to Renesmee's surprise, Bella looked mortified. Esme was trying not to laugh, and Edward had placed his head in his hands. Misty, however, was glaring at Jack. He simply smiled at her, a more open smile, and Renesmee felt a sudden flash of jealousy. Jack was _her_ wolf, and even though Renesmee liked Dr. Foster very much, it wasn't fair that Jack only smiled halfway for her but would smile all the way for someone else.

Confusion hit her as soon as the jealousy passed, and it was followed by guilt for thinking unkind thoughts about an adult who had always been very nice to her.

"Excuse me," Renesmee whispered softly, realizing that her parents were both looking at her, and that her wolf had a confused expression on his face, not understanding why she was slipping out of her chair, her bowl of ice cream in her small hands. "I'm going to go eat out on the front porch, if that's okay."

Bella shared a confused glance with Edward and then nodded. "Yes, honey, that's okay. Just wear your coat."

So Renesmee wore her coat and her matching knit cap and her scarf too, and she sat outside on the porch steps, tracing circles in her bowl of ice cream with her spoon. It didn't take long before someone settled on the porch next to her, and a second spoon continued scooping out bites of a second bowl of ice cream.

"You are unhappy with me, imprint," Jack said eventually, and Renesmee blushed.

"I'm sorry, Mister Jack," Renesmee apologized softly. "I don't mean to be. I just wish…" She trailed off, too embarrassed to say what she was thinking.

"Ayásochid, Renesmee?" Jack asked curiously, and the little girl blushed more. She really didn't want to say. As if he understood this, Jack nodded, and then he gave her a small, curving smile. "It is hard to share the things you have, if you have never had such things. I will be your friend first and always, imprint. That is what our imprinting means for us."

"Do you like her, Mister Jack?" Renesmee couldn't help but ask, feeling her cheeks go crimson. "Is that why you smiled at her like that?"

He seemed surprised, and then understanding dawned in Jack's eyes, his expression growing more contemplative. "She appeals to me, but not in the way that you think, imprint and Packmate. She feels familiar, nothing more, but for one like me that familiarity is welcome and comforting. It has been a…difficult day, and I am taking my comforts as I can."

Renesmee nodded, not trusting herself to speak and not look sillier than she already did. She could see a sadness in his eyes despite his smile, and it occurred to Renesmee that her wolf had been trying to be cheerful for her. It made her feel important, so she smiled back at him, and her wolf relaxed, looking happier that her unhappiness seemed to be fading.

"It is an odd thing for me to have my smiles count in their giving, Renesmee," he added her after a moment of thought. "But I am an old wolf, and have had enough time to share my smiles. It is not so big of a thing."

"You would smile only at me?" Renesmee asked, shocked at the thought, and Jack winked at her playfully.

"If that made you happier, imprint," Jack teased. "Although I will have to learn to frown more often, until I become used to it. Perhaps I can be like the Makah and walk upside down on my hands, so that I could continue to smile around others when I am not with you."

Renesmee giggled at the thought of her wolf walking around on his hands so that his smile would be a frown for her, and then she blushed again, smiling apologetically. "I'm being silly, Mister Jack. I'm sorry that I became jealous because you smiled at someone else. That wasn't very kind of me."

"If I am to be your wolf, and your best friend, then it is good to know that you are silly, imprint. I had thought that perhaps my imprint was only wise, and brave, and clever," Jack said sagely. "Now I will be prepared for when you are silly as well, and I can follow suit."

The thought of him being silly was so…silly, that Renesmee giggled again and made the silliest face she could imagine. She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him and Renesmee tried her very best to wiggle her ears. When she opened one eye to see if he was shocked and appalled by her silliness, the wolf next to her was looking at the bowl of ice cream in his hands, but he was laughing. It was silent, but she could see that he was laughing by the way his torn shoulders were moving.

Renesmee had never seen her wolf laugh, and she had been the one to make him do so. Pride filled her, so she ate her melted ice cream and was thankful that her eyes did not stay crossed the way that they had. To be the cross-eyed imprint would have been very embarrassing.

As she ate her ice cream, Renesmee remembered what she and her mother had been speaking of earlier, and Renesmee looked up at her wolf. "Mister Jack? May I ask you a question about imprinting?"

Her wolf paused for a half second before continuing eating his ice cream. "It is your right to speak to me whatever you wish, imprint," he told her. "I will answer as well as I am able."

The little girl nodded, trying to make sure that her fingers didn't get sticky even as she scraped the last of her ice cream from the sides of her bowl. "Mister Jack? Do you know why you imprinted on me?" Jack glanced at her, as if trying to gauge why she wanted to know, so Renesmee tried to explain.

"My mother was telling me what she remembered of the legends of the Cold Ones and Taha Aki and Utlapa, and the more I thought about it, the more it became confusing to me. If you were meant to kill vampires, then why would you imprint on one? Or is it that you only imprinted on the human part of me? If that is true, does that mean that we would have the weakest imprint bond of all of the imprinted wolves in the Pack? Do I make you weaker than a regular imprint would? Do I make the whole Pack weaker? But that can't be true because if I made the Pack weaker, then I wouldn't have been able to help Seth by being near him. But Grandpa thinks that the Packbonds may simply be biological reactions such as rushes of endorphins or increased production of adrenaline. He thinks that the particular animosity between our two species is actually olfactory in nature, and that instead of being drawn to each other by pleasing scents, we are drawn to kill each other because of the disagreeable ones. But could that be true? Could someone really smell so badly that you would want to kill them? Why do we have to kill anyone at all? Why-"

Her wolf made a soft noise in his throat, a sound that was meant to be soothing, and Renesmee realized that her questions had been coming faster and faster, rolling off of her tongue. She stopped midsentence and was about to apologize, but grew distracted by her wolf taking her spoon from her bowl and placing it in his own, handing her the remaining half of his ice cream.

"Oh. I can always go get more, Mister Jack," Renesmee said, confused, and he smiled at her slightly, dropping his spoon into her empty bowl.

"Yes, Renesmee, but you are worried," Jack told her in a matter-of-fact tone. "It is easy to feel worry when one's belly is empty, and it is hard to feel anything but contentment when one's belly is full. I could hunt deer or elk for you if you would like, but you have already hunted this for us, imprint and Packmate. If need be, I will go and hunt some more. Ice cream or elk, neither is beyond my ability this day," he promised her and Renesmee smiled again when he gave her a little wink.

Renesmee nodded, and then she realized that she had never shared food with someone. She had given food to the wolves, who would inhale leftovers like candy, but she herself had never done the same. It seemed…odd to her. Odd and rather unsanitary, but then again she had never truly felt hunger in her life, hunger enough to need to share food, without caring where that food came from. She had experienced thirst that desperate, but never hunger, so she took Jack's bowl and began to eat from it slowly. She had been provided for all her life, but she had never thought much about the source of the providing.

As she thought about it, the doctor in the house came outside, limping over to Renesmee and ruffling her hair. Esme followed behind with the car keys, a good thing because Misty was looking rather unsteady.

"Be good, Nessie," Misty said fondly, before giving Jack a suspicious look. "And don't listen to what this one tells you, Mister Jack Rabbit man."

Misty eyed Jack doubtfully one last time and Jack grinned back at her wolfishly. The doctor didn't understand why Jack proceeded to try to stand on his hands, still grinning, or why Renesmee feel over in peals of laughter, but Misty shook her head and followed Esme to her car, muttering that shit just got weirder every day. When her grandmother and the doctor were gone and Edward had declared from inside the house that both Jack and Renesmee had lost their minds, Renesmee wiped her eyes and went back to eating her ice cream. Well, her wolf's ice cream. It was still odd to her, sharing, but it was nice of him and it make Renesmee feel good that she mattered enough to him that he would have less of something just to make her feel better.

With the exception of human blood, there was very little that the Cullen coven ever went without. It was a novel concept, to say the least.

As she ate, her wolf grew more serious, before finally he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his arms relaxed.

"There are many things that I do not understand, imprint," Jack said, watching the way the wind blew through the forest around them. "And there are many things that I once understood that are lost to me. However, I know that the wolf spirit that is bound to my own saw in you a match for us, and I trust in that. You were born of my enemies, but that does not make you my enemy, imprint. You are not of Kwòlíyoť blood, but that does not mean that you do not have blood flowing through your veins. In you I have found a friend, Renesmee, and I do not have so many that I am ignorant of the gift that true friendship brings. I do not have the answers that you are looking for, but I am content in how things stand between us."

"But don't you ever want to know _why_, Mister Jack?" the little girl asked, wondering at what that would be like, to simple accept what they were given and to not question things.

"One can spend a lifetime asking why and never know the answers, Renesmee," Jack said softly, looking down at his feet. "Some things just…must be." He looked so sad when he said it that Renesmee couldn't help reaching out her hand and placing it on his wrist, thinking that it had been better when he looked happier instead. Her wolf smiled at that and then glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"It has been a long day, Packmate, and the soul of our Pack is wounded and weary," Jack said, before turning and looking at her hopefully. "But it is the earth that heals, and it is our feet that connects us to the earth. If your parents are willing and able to keep join us, would you run with me?"

"No, thank you, Mister Jack," Renesmee shook her head as she answered him very seriously. He gave her a surprised and slightly disappointed look, and the little girl couldn't hide her snicker. "Thank you for the invitation, but neither you nor my parents can keep up with me. I would be willing to go for a slow jog if you wanted to, though."

"I heard that, Nessie," Edward called from the kitchen, and Renesmee grinned at her wolf, who was grinning back at her challengingly.

"My imprint is wise and brave and clever, but I doubt that she is faster than me," Jack decided. "I think that she is so full of ice cream-" and before he could say another word, she was off like a shot. This time Jack waited until the two vampires came out of the house and darted after her, before phasing wolf and joining in the chase.

Renesmee was right, they never did catch her, although a brindled wolf did steal her knit hat and her father out-tracked her almost immediately. Renesmee's wolf growled playfully as he chewed on her hat and watched her get tickled mercilessly between her mock-offended parents, and Jack rolled over onto his back, quite content to gnaw her hat upside down while he watched the stars and got his belly scratched in apology. It occurred to Renesmee as she played and laughed that her Packmates were hurting tonight, and that it would have been much more appropriate to stay inside instead and be considerate of their feelings. But then her wolf finished with her hat and stole her scarf, wagging his tail as he yipped and took off in circle around her.

Forgetting what was considerate and appropriate in the face of scarf thievery, the little girl squealed and darted after them both instead.

* * *

The phone was ringing, but as he collapsed down on the edge of his and Kim's bed, Jared ignored it.

Finally, everyone was gone. Finally Jared could just be alone, and he could just try to think about what to do next. Even Brady and Kim weren't there, although Kim was in the next room, exhausted from today and napping on Brady's couch, and Brady was trying to figure out something to cook for them for dinner.

Jared didn't want to eat. He didn't want to do anything but walk out of this house, phase into a wolf, and go hunt down the fucker that had taken his brother away from him. The guilt was heavy, but the anger was heaviest. Jared couldn't take any more sympathetic looks, he couldn't hold anymore crying family members, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore when FBI agents asked him again if there was anyone that had a grudge against his brother. They had taken Joe Carter in for questioning, after all Shane _had_ been found with Casey, Carter's girlfriend, but right now Jared didn't care. Jake and Embry were dealing with that, and Jared didn't give two shits what happened to Joe Carter.

Right now Jared wanted to walk away from the hard things and go do the easiest thing, which was to go kill something. Right now he needed the world to leave him alone, and the phone to just stop ringing. Which it did. Finally. Thank god.

A soft knock on the bedroom door, and then Brady's apologetic voice. "Hey, Jared? I'm sorry, I know you said you wanted to be left alone, but there's someone on the phone. You might…fuck, I don't know, you just might want to take this."

"Language, Brady," Jared said tiredly, pulling off his tie and dumping it on the bed. "Kim's in the next room." He hated ties, just like Paul, because Jared never had liked having something choking him around his neck.

"Sorry, Jared," Brady said softly. "Just take the call, okay?"

Damn kid. He always could get what he wanted out of Jared, didn't even have to say please to do it either. But Jared figured he owed Brady this. Brady hadn't left his side once this whole time, hadn't even held it against him that Jared clocked Jennings a good one for being a dick. Sighing, the wolf stood up and went to the dresser, where the portable phone sat waiting for him, the little busy light blinking.

Busy. Jared's fucking brother was dead. Jared was too busy to take anyone's call right now, didn't everyone get that?

"What?" Jared growled when he picked up the phone, not even bothering to say hello. Then his eyes softened and his shoulders slumped, and he sat back down on the bed. Damn…

Jared let the phone dangle between his fingertips as he took a couple slow, calming breathes. Of course she would call…Jared's brother was dead. She had liked Shane, and she still cared about all of them, so of _course_ she would call. He just hadn't expected it. She always had been able to get to him so Jared sniffed once before manning up, wiping his eyes and steadying his voice before placing the phone back to his head.

"…Hey, Anna."


	17. Chapter 15

**A/N** This site has been giving me trouble updating lately. If it seems too long since an update, check out my live journal account, I may have already updated there. Thanks as always to my reviewers: _Maximus05, Gryffindor Gurl2, TheNotoriousLIP, cylobaby, The all mighty and powerfulM, BiteMeLoveMe, Aleena Kiwiana, Britt01, moani-sama, EssaTheTwerp, dirtychicken, KerryH, Buffyk0604, Manna1, 82c10akaLynn, shelbron, lilred-07, Jessica1018, QahlanKwaiya, laurazuleta18, hilja, MargotTenser, MadToTheBone1, PrincessVamp, talmida, scrapalicious, PumpkinSpiceLatte, Hannah Writes R, hefors, chicadee74, _and_ Cotton Strings._ You all are wonderful!

*_Raven the Trickster_ and _Cassiopeia's Chair/Toscobuk and the Elk_ are Quileute legend. Any literary license taken is intended with the utmost respect to the Quileute Nation and any offensive materials will be removed immediately.

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Fifteen

_It is said that in the first days of his exile from the Kwòlíyoť people, that the silence in the former Qa'al's head drove him mad. _

_For the Tlokwali, to hear one's brothers and sisters in their thoughts is at first a hardship, but once adjusted to, becomes a way of life that the wolf is loath to live without. Like the schools of salmon that swim through the rivers, so do the Tlokwali swim through each other's minds, existing as one harmoniously. For the wolf that choses to leave the Tlokwali, the loss of their brothers and sisters in their thoughts is painful, distressing, but as the wolf gives way finally to the human, it eventually becomes bearable._

_For the lone wolf that still takes both wolf and human form, to hear nothing but one's own thoughts is to hear a deafening roar of emptiness, a roar that builds until it is a crescendo of agony. _

_It is said that the great Alpha T'sikáti, as weakened and heartsick as he was, understood that in casting the former Qa'al away from the Tlokwali, that he was resigning his oldest friend to a terribleness far greater than for any other wolf before them. They were simply too old to be cut off from the Tlokwali shared mind. The fish wept at his own cruelty, and the earth shook for two days and two nights as the fishhook writhed in pain. _

_Unable to stand it any longer, T'sikáti broke tradition and allowed his oldest friend to hear the thoughts and voices of his former brothers, although for the Tlokwali, the exiled wolf could never be heard or spoken to in kind. It was a difficult thing to do, even more difficult to maintain, and the kindness only weakened T'sikáti even further. It is said that despite this, the Alpha would have chosen no other way. _

_T'sikáti's kindness was a double edged sword, for even though the Alpha had ordered for his wolves to not speak of their former Qa'al again, and therefore perhaps save the silently listening wolf the pain of hearing their anger, even T'sikáti could not constantly stay wolf to guard their thoughts. In fact, the Alpha grew more discontent with each passing day, and it is whispered that while the Tlokwali could not hear the former Qa'al's voice or thoughts in their heads, that T'sikáti could hear the fishhook clearly. Unable to speak to his friend by his own decree and unable to stand the former Qa'al's deepening misery, T'sikáti took refuge in human form and spent his days and nights walking the shore, pacing in the sand and staring at the waves._

_The Alpha grew reticent and irritable, driving off his brothers and sisters when they tried to approach him, and eventually T'sikáti left the longhouse where he and the former Qa'al had once made their home. It was as if T'sikáti had determined to suffer himself the same isolation that he had forced upon Qa'al, and in doing so was causing himself and the Tlokwali much hardship. _

_It is said that once hooked, even great fishes can drown and sink, and as the seasons passed, so did the once great Alpha T'sikáti drown in his loneliness and sink beneath his regret. For his brothers and sisters, to watch such was a deeply saddening thing. _

_The Tlokwali respected their Alpha's orders, but when T'sikáti grew more and more withdrawn, rarely leaving the spot on the beach where he now ate and slept and stayed, it was with bitterness that the Tlokwali whispered to themselves of the one that had destroyed their Alpha, who had left T'sikáti a shell of what he had once been. More than once a wolf slipped from Kwòlíyoť lands to seek out the former Qa'al, the nameless wolf, the one known only to their ranks as the kadidu. Whether to kill him or beg him to ease their Alpha's hardship varied upon seeker, but more than once those wolves came home with torn sides and bloodied muzzles. Sometimes they never came home at all._

_When told, T'sikáti merely said nothing, instead looking out to the ocean as if seeing that which none of them could see. _

_Their former Qa'al had become a mindless beast, a killer, and hated as no other had been hated since the days of Utlapa. It is said that Utlapa's blood itself had always run through the former Qa'al's veins, and that the spirits had made a mistake in allowing the former Qa'al to become Tlokwali, beguiled by his promises to them. In an effort to save their Alpha and rectify this mistake, the Tlokwali began searching for the former Qa'al intently, determined to kill him and rid their Alpha of his remembrance. It was only then, as the Tlokwali's numbers continued to grow and their search for the former Qa'al expanded, did T'sikáti finally rise and call his wolves back in a strong, commanding voice, telling them that there were more pressing matters to be attended to._

_Nearly three centuries had passed since the betrayal of Qa'al, and for the first time, T'sikáti showed hints of the Alpha he had once been. After all, a new danger had come to threaten the Kwòlíyoť people, and it was a threat of the likes that even T'sikáti had never seen. _

_The pale faces had come to the land of the Tlokwali, offering knowledge and goods and trade, but bringing illness and trouble and death along with them. The Tlokwali were spared from the pale faces' sicknesses, bolstered by wolven bodies, but the Kwòlíyoť were not. Across the land too many tribes lost too many lives: men, women, and children alike. Some tribes disappeared entirely, taken by strange diseases that spread like wildfire._

_The elders whispered that it signaled the ending of the old ways. _

_The spirits were restless, unhappy, and did not like the noises that these new people brought to the land. When sought for advice, the spirits were hard to understand, and the ancestors' soft voices began to disappear on the wind, the silent footsteps and the steady drumbeats of the Kwòlíyoť way of life lost beneath the pounding boots and the gunpowder of those that came across the ocean. _

_Concerned at the fate of the Kwòlíyoť, T'sikáti broke his promise to himself and searched out his former friend for advice, for with the loss of Qa'al had come the loss of the last true shaman of their people. Qa'al had never trained another before his exile, and T'sikáti could feel the lack of the spirits' knowledge keenly. Knowing where it was that the former Qa'al had spent most of his days, T'sikáti went straightaway to the clearing._

_Instead of his friend, T'sikáti found only an apple tree that an owl had once planted nearly three centuries prior, and at the base of the tree was the smell of Cold One intermingled with the smell of the former Qa'al. Confused and worried, T'sikáti waited and waited, but the former Qa'al never returned._

_It is said that the wolf Tupkuk, now Fourth in his ranking, found his Alpha beneath the apple tree, the younger wolf bleeding from many wounds. Tupkuk had known his Alpha's need and had succeeded in finding the former Qa'al, but at Qa'al's hip a Cold One had stood. When Tupkuk had tried to kill the Cold One, the former Qa'al had driven him away, his hatred causing him to refuse to listen to Tupkuk for any reason. _

_Believing that his friend had truly betrayed them in the end, a heartsick T'sikáti returned home, the fish giving up on his quest to ask the fishhook for guidance. Blind to the desires of the ancestors and broken by the weakening of his spirit, T'sikáti prepared for the coming of the newest onslaught of pale faces. _

_Silently, the one from the mountains watched and waited and bided its time. After all, even at their weakest, the blood of Taha Aki never had died easily. _

* * *

Renesmee was hunting.

It had been a long time since the child had hunted deliberately. Most of her recent hunting had been accidental, done in the throes of intense thirst, and so it had been a long time since she had stalked something through the woods, her feet rising and falling noiselessly.

Well, mostly noiselessly.

It was only the little girl and her prey in the forest, although her father was ranging about the area closely enough to monitor her thoughts. So Renesmee winced when her foot stepped down on a twig, hearing the creaking of waterlogged wood as it bent beneath her toes and knowing that she had given herself away. The twig didn't break, she was far too light and paying far too much attention to her steps for that to happen, but the damage was done. She had made enough noise that her prey had heard her and had stopped, turning to look over his shoulder.

From where she waited, hidden deep in the snow covered brush, Renesmee frowned, her eyes narrowing in concentration as she watched her wolf continue walking through the forests that surrounded her home. His steps were silent, every single one of them, and the little girl was determined to be able to do the same herself. That was why she had asked him to teach her to walk as he did. She'd been thinking about it ever since they had travelled to La Push together, when she had first seen her wolf misstep.

Apparently the best way to learn to walk quietly was when absolute silence was needed, and absolute silence was needed when one was stalking. Well, as long as she didn't have to kill anything, this kind of stalking Renesmee was content to do.

She waited as Jack moved off, feeling a flash of indignation when he began humming softly under his breath, even though she took advantage of the noise to take her bare foot off of the twig and to begin hunting him again. Renesmee didn't like the fact that he was helping her cheat, and it made her frown deepen. She had never failed at a lesson before, and even though this didn't quite qualify as the same as her studies, the little girl was overwhelmed with a particularly strong desire to not only walk as silently as the wolf she was tracking, but to do it even better than he could himself.

When offered competition, Renesmee always had been a bit of an overachiever.

As the little girl watched her prey intently, studying the rise and fall of his feet as he moved, she decided that one day she _would_ outhunt him. Smiling at the thought, Renesmee stepped out from her cover deliberately.

"Mister Jack?" she called out to the ancient wolf a few yards ahead of her. "If you don't mind please, could we start over?"

Her wolf turned around and hunkered down in the snow, the buckskins that had looked so alien in her modernly decorated home now blending his form almost seamlessly into their environment. Jack tilted his head, and she could see the question on his lips before he asked.

"I'm fine, Mister Jack," Renesmee smiled at him cheerfully. "I just prefer to win fairly, that's all."

There was a flash of white teeth as Jack grinned at her answer, and then he tapped his forefinger against the corner of his eye. Nodding, Renesmee closed her eyes and counted to five silently. When she opened them again, her wolf was gone, without a hint of tracks in the snow or the scent of him on the wind. Impressed despite having spent her entire life surrounded by vampires, Renesmee began hunting again.

Yes, this was much better.

Just because she couldn't hear or see Jack didn't mean that he couldn't hear or see her, so after carefully scanning her environment, Renesmee walked as quietly as she was able to where her wolf's last footprints still pressed down into the snow. Her father had taught her to track a long time ago, but Edward had always been much better at it than she had, and competitive nature aside, Renesmee had always been content to follow where her coven guided her. Her studies had been focused more on the scholarly than the practical, and so Renesmee was feeling her lack of education deeply right now. There was no book to open and find the answer to where her wolf had gone, and there was no one to find and ask for help. Instead there was simply her, and the parts that she had at her disposal, her nose and her eyes and her brain.

Running a quick inventory, Renesmee knew that her nose would not be helpful, not with how adept her wolf was at keeping his scent downwind of her. Even now, she was certain that wherever Jack was, he could smell her. But that meant that he must be somewhere in the direction that the wind was blowing, or somewhere that the wind could not touch him. Her eyes would be helpful if she could get close enough to him, but right now all she saw was the snow covered earth and the brush and the trees.

The trees.

One of the first things that her coven had taught her was to look up. Vampires liked to climb, and when near the wolves, there was safety in the trees. Keeping her eyes on the ground where the tracks lay, a trick to keep her flickering gaze from giving her away, Renesmee tried to remember in detail the trees that she had been looking at only moments earlier.

It wouldn't have been hard for Jack to reach the limbs of two different redwoods to her right, but the little girl's gut feeling was telling her that the further off evergreen to the left was the most likely choice. It provided more effective concealment and would hide his scent from her more thoroughly. However if Jack went that way, it was deeper into the forest, with ground that had been sheltered more thoroughly from the snow. When he came down from the trees, he would make fewer tracks than he would coming down from the redwoods, and tracking him through that ground would be harder. If she went towards the evergreen, glanced at it even, he would be forced that way.

Flushing one's prey into better coverage was bad hunting protocol, so Renesmee finally glanced up at the redwoods. The second one would be easiest to climb, so she deliberately examined the first one, as if looking for signs that he had gone that way. Scurrying up the trunk wasn't particularly hard, although she had to jump a couple times to reach the branches that were high above her head. Once she reached the height where the branches grew too slender to support her wolf's weight, she made a show of looking around the highway of forest branches for where her wolf could have gone, before finally flickering her eyes towards the much shorter evergreen off to the left.

She couldn't see him. Frowning again, Renesmee let her eyes scan the earth around the evergreen, and the trees closet to it. No wolf. She didn't think he would leave that cover if he felt that she was going in the wrong direction. In fact—

"If you think any harder, imprint, you may fall out of this tree," her wolf chuckled from several branches lower than her. The sudden noise made her yelp and in fact do exactly as Jack had predicted, falling right out of the tree. However Renesmee was half vampire and falling out of a tree was not a major thing. She simply caught the next branch below her, dangled a moment until her balance returned and then dropped down on the branch her wolf had seated himself on. Jack was leaning against the trunk, eyeing her with mild amusement.

Renesmee blushed slightly and then settled into the same cross-legged pose that her wolf was in, facing him from a few feet away. "I was looking ahead, trying to predict where you would go, but you were right behind me the entire time, weren't you, Mister Jack?" Renesmee asked ruefully, picking at the bark beneath her jeans, and her wolf smiled slightly at her.

"When the path ahead is overly complex, it is the path that lies behind us that holds the best answers, imprint," Jack murmured and Renesmee thought about that, tilting her head. Then she frowned again, not from displeasure but because she was thinking about what he had said and it didn't make sense to her.

"Mister Jack?" Renesmee asked softly, glancing at his face to gauge his mood. "Would it upset you if I didn't agree?"

The slight smile stayed on his lips and he shook his head. Her disagreement would not upset him.

The little girl felt the need to explain herself, to explain that she believed that the past could help one know what to look for in the future, but Renesmee had spent her entire life learning about the good that had come from looking ahead and not looking back. The improvements in technology, in health care, in quality of life were rooted in the lessons learned in the past but centered on the need to move forward, to be progressive. Improvement had always been a primary goal for the little girl, with reflection done as a secondary response and used to aid in the primary goal.

Renesmee was still young, but her life had been spent driving herself forward. It was in her nature to question and wonder, to set herself goals and ideals, to worry and to concern herself overly much with not having attained the goals that she set for herself, be they educational or physical. The answers were always somewhere ahead, if one was simply diligent enough to strive for them. It was _not_ in her nature to stop, to turn around, to look behind her.

She felt the need to explain, so not to offend him, but her wolf just leaned further back against the tree trunk. "As hard as you are still thinking, you may fall again, imprint," Jack teased lightly. "Since I have no imprint to spare, and no desire to lose the one I have, I believe that my imprint may need to grow wings. What bird will you be, Renesmee?"

Renesmee grinned because it had been a long time since she had played pretend, things had been much too serious for that lately. So she rose to her feet and balanced on the tree limb. "I think that I will be a raven, Mister Jack. They are very smart and good problem solvers, and I think I would rather be an uglier bird that could think than a prettier bird who could only sing." Then Renesmee giggled and admitted, "Plus my Aunt Alice thinks I look gothic when I wear black, since my skin is so pale, and that the other vampires would laugh at us if we looked gothic. Proper vampires never do such a thing. But it would be fun to wear black feathers, I never have."

She flapped her raven's wings and pretended that she could soar and fly, and didn't notice that in her pretending that her wolf was watching her feet very carefully for signs that she would slip again. There were less branches to catch this time if she fell.

"Raven is the Trickster," Jack informed Renesmee as she flew, but he smiled slightly. "My imprint is clever, so I should not be surprised. I will do better to watch you, imprint, so not to be made the fool."

She flushed happily at the compliment and then flew higher, spying a squirrel off near the evergreen. "I wouldn't trick you, Mister Jack," Renesmee promised, deciding not to swoop down on her prey, even though that was what clever imprint ravens were prone to do. "That wouldn't be very nice of me. Mister Jack? What kind of bird do you want to be?"

His lips curved a bit more as he said, "I am a wolf, imprint, and cannot be a bird. A bird cannot fly with paws as big as mine, and the wolf runs awkwardly with wings. I am content to be neither of those things."

Renesmee giggled at the image of a bird with giant wolf paws and then she turned to Jack. "What kind of bird do you _like_ the most, Mister Jack?" she asked curiously, and her wolf's eyes tightened slightly.

Jack grew very quiet, and because she was a very polite child, Renesmee waited. "I prefer the kinds that don't fly away, imprint," he answered after a while, sounding exactly like himself, but for some reason he was staring off into the distance and Renesmee had the feeling that she was missing something.

Renesmee waited for him to continue, but he didn't say anything more, and so she set her feathers down in a neat pile and she turned sideways, her feet dangling from the branch, not concerned that she was nearly forty feet up.

"Birds are meant to fly away, Mister Jack," she told him quietly. "That's what makes them prettier than the rest of us."

Her wolf glanced up at her sharply, and then Renesmee gave him a bright smile. "That's okay," she continued, "Because there a lot of species that can't fly. Did you know that flightless birds have a smaller wing bones?"

He was still staring at her oddly, but then he blinked and shook his head in silent answer to her question.

Just for fun, Renesmee flapped her own very small elbow wings and then kicked her feet idly. "And did you know that the smallest flightless bird is only about five inches long? That's pretty small to just be hopping around without any wings. At least the ostriches are big and strong and can kick, although I think that penguins are far more interesting. Have you ever seen Happy Feet, Mister Jack?"

Her wolf had never seen Happy Feet, and he seemed confused at the idea of singing and dancing penguins, but he listened as she tried to explain the concept. Deciding that a full synopsis of the movie would provide more clarity, Renesmee started from the beginning and when he didn't yawn even once, she kept on going through the middle and to the end. Renesmee couldn't remember any of the names in the credits, so she stopped there, assuming that her wolf may not be interested in those sorts of things.

It had taken her nearly an hour to tell him every detail about that movie, and throughout it all, Jack listened. Jack listened because he always listened, even if he did so silently. And when she was done, Renesmee stood up on her branch and gave him a hopeful little smile. "Mister Jack? Can we try again? Daddy will probably come get me for dinner soon, and I really would like to learn to walk as quietly as you."

"If you wish it, imprint," her wolf said simply. "But I will not go easy on you this time."

"I learn better with more complicated lessons, anyways, Mister Jack," the little girl replied honestly. And so the raven went hunting, and while she came close to the wolf often, never once did she catch her prey. However Renesmee went home tired and happy, wrapped up in her father's arms.

She'd outhunt him one of these days.

* * *

It had been a long time since the Alpha had spent an entire day with her. To say that Renesmee was thrilled was a gross understatement.

Renesmee knew that Jake was a busy wolf, now more so than ever since the reservation was still under investigation for a double homicide. The little girl tried hard not to eavesdrop, but she had heard her grandfather talking about himself and Dr. Foster being asked to consult on the bodies, as far as they were allowed to, anyways. Apparently the FBI were frustrated because the Qahla family were refusing to allow an autopsy done on Shane, and that Billy Black was insisting on the same for the family-less Casey. Billy had the investigation so bogged down in tribal law and tribal rights that it had come to a screeching halt.

When asked, Carlisle had said that the blunt trauma Casey had suffered was too forceful for a human without a weapon, sending the FBI on a wild goose chase for an object that didn't exist. Dr. Foster said nothing and had merely excused herself from the room.

They had released Joe Carter, their primary suspect, within a day of taking him, after Embry Call and Jacob Black had walked into the Forks police station and provided Carter with an alibi for where he had been that morning. Both sons of the tribal chief claimed to have gone to Carter's home that Christmas morning only to find him drunk and passed out on the couch. They had left before Carter ever woke up. The investigators were suspicious, considering that it was only the two young men's word, but with no physical proof of wrongdoing, Carter had been eventually released.

The FBI had wanted to talk to Samantha, but according to Carlisle Cullen, Joe Carter's daughter had apparently been significantly traumatized by the death of her father's lover, and she had a history of stress related emotional problems. As her primary physician, Carlisle had flexed his considerable muscle and bought her an extra week before she was pulled in for questioning. Apparently she couldn't stop shaking the entire time and grew violent when told her father was still under suspect for the murders.

No people were harmed, but Renesmee had it on good authority that Samantha managed to crumple a metal clipboard and had been ready to do the same to an agent before Jake and Billy had busted in and pulled out more tribal rights, claiming that the La Push residents had been questioned disrespectfully and without Council representation. By the time they were done, there was so much red tape that it would be a while before Samantha would have to speak to any government official again, which had been the goal. An extra week had not been nearly enough time for the she-wolf to learn to keep her temper.

Personally, Renesmee was thankful that violent was as bad as it gotten. It would have been very unfortunate for the Pack if their newest she-wolf had phased in front of a group of humans, that group particularly.

The little girl felt strange knowing that both her grandfather and her Alpha had lied to authority figures, something that Renesmee had been taught to _never_ do, but she tried to justify it by knowing that theirs was a supernatural world, and it involved secrets. The coven had many secrets, some that Renesmee felt guilty not telling her wolf or her Alpha, but Renesmee truly did try to do as she was told. So when she was told by her grandmother to put on something warm that she could go to town with Jake in, the little girl happily did just that. She had been playing quietly in her room, looking at the rock that Jack had given her the first time he had come to see her. She still wasn't sure why he had done so.

The massive wolf was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, arms folded across his chest as he leaned against the banister. When he saw her, Jake gave Renesmee a bright, white-toothed smile. "Heya, honey," Jake said cheerfully. "Want to spend the day with the big bad wolf?"

"Hoow, hooowoo!" Emmett howled from the other room jokingly, and Jake chuckled. Renesmee just beamed.

"Yes, very much so, Jacob," she nodded happily, and as he always did, the Alpha scooped her up into his arms.

"How's my newest imprint doing on this fine lovely morning?" Jake asked, tugging one of her curls teasingly.

Renesmee was very happy, so she flashed a pretty smile at her Alpha. "I was looking at my rock, Jacob," she said proudly. "Mister Jack always does everything for a reason, so I think that it's supposed to mean something. I was looking at it to try and figure out what it meant."

"And did you figure it out, Nessie?" Jake asked, and the little girl shook her head.

"No, but Mister Jack—"

A blonde vampire came around the corner and rolled her eyes. "The dog is the only thing that she talks about anymore," Rosalie told Jacob, looking exasperated. "The dog this, the dog that…your pack of mutts has ruined my niece."

Renesmee blushed slightly at that, wondering if perhaps her Aunt Rose was right and that she did talk too much about her wolf?

Jake reached over and ruffled Rosalie's hair, making a tsking noise at the vampire. "Now now, blondie, lay off my newbies," Jake said calmly. "Not everyone can be as boring and self-centered as you."

Rosalie batted Jake's hand off of her head and hissed at him, but Renesmee just knew her Aunt was just playing. Rosalie had more fun arguing with Jake than she did working on her car or shopping.

The Alpha turned his attention back to Renesmee and gave her a wet sloppy kiss on her forehead, making the little girl giggle and Rosalie gag. "What time do you want me to bring her back?" Jake asked as Esme walked over, the Cullen matriarch giving Renesmee a second and more contained kiss on the crown of her head.

"We'll need the entire day, Jacob," Esme replied gratefully. "With the exception of the hour you need with your Pack, and then Alice and Jasper and I will patrol the borders for you. Thank you for taking her today, I hope it's not too much of a burden."

"Naw, Nessie's never a burden," Jake replied, playfully hoisting the little girl higher in the air to show that she didn't weigh enough to burden him at all. "Maybe if she gets older and puts on a few pounds like Barbie over here…"

"Bite me, mutt," Rosalie growled and Jake winked at Rosalie as he started for the door, enjoying the fact that he was leaving her hanging with the insult.

"Naw, you'd taste like plastic. By the way, you guys know that Jack would do the same, right?" the Alpha told the coven as Esme escorted him to the door. "He'd watch Nessie anytime you needed him to." That knowledge made Renesmee extremely happy, but Rosalie snorted while Esme sighed and then squeezed Jake's hand.

"We _are_ trying, Jake," Esme said softly. "But she's our most precious possession, and we guard what is ours just as protectively as you do. Give us time to adjust, dear."

"Yeah, yeah, momma vamp," Jake chuckled, wrapping an arm around Esme's shoulders and giving her a quick hug. "I know, I know. Tell Bells I said hi, and that I'll bring Nessie back sometime after dinner. Oh, and I'm taking her car."

Esme's eyes sparkled in amusement at that, and sure enough, Jake stole Renesmee's mother's car, although it took a bit of hotwiring to do it because Bella had deliberately taken the keys. Renesmee watched curiously, after all it was always good to learn something new, and when Jacob was done, Renesmee carefully buckled her seatbelt.

"Jacob?" Renesmee asked politely. "Will I get to see Mister Jack today?"

The Alpha shot her a grin as he revved the engine and backed the sports car around in the driveway. "Mister Jack, Mister Jack…what about Mister _Jacob_, Nessie? Have you forgotten me already?" Jake pretended to be wounded, and for a moment Renesmee worried that maybe she had forgotten her Alpha in her distraction, but then she grinned back at him.

"I suppose I could be convinced to remember you more often, Jacob," she chirped cheerfully. "It's possible that popcorn can increase the blood flow to the brain and therefore increase memory functions. Of course sugar and caffeine in equal quantities has been known to do something similar."

The Alpha barked out a laugh and reached over to ruffle her hair, much the same way he had done to Rosalie. "Ooh, the imprint's learning to bargain with the Alpha. How about this: I'll spring for popcorn and soda on one condition, imprint. _I_ get to pick the movie this time. I still haven't recovered from The Clique. That shi—that quality cinematic experience has been scarred forever into my brain."

"Your conditions are acceptable, Jacob," Renesmee decided, reaching out a hand for him to shake. Jake grinned at her, shook on it, and then laughed.

"You crack me up, kid," the Alpha chuckled. "Anyways we have some time to kill before the movies open and the Pack meeting later. Any suggestions?"

Renesmee didn't have any suggestions because she rarely went into town where Jake was headed, with the exception of the hospital. Jake seemed to think voluntarily spending time at the hospital was "weird and creepy", and Renesmee was worried about playing in the park when there might be children around. She very much didn't want to eat anyone today, and Renesmee admitted that to Jake quietly. He cast her a quizzical look.

"Nessie?" Jake asked as they pulled into the park anyways. He kept the car running and draped his large arms across the steering wheel. "Is it getting any easier for you, controlling your thirst? Or is it getting harder?"

The little girl fidgeted with her seatbelt. "It's harder, Jacob," she said softly. "I have to think about it twice as much as I used to just to make sure I don't hurt anyone, and when the thirst gets too bad…" She trailed off unhappily.

"What honey?" Jake asked, taking her hand. "You can trust me."

She knew that she could trust her Alpha, but she didn't want to tell him that it felt like there was a monster inside of her, one that was different than who she wanted to be, and when it took over, there was nothing that she could do. She became a monster, a killer too. And she was scared that one day she would hurt someone, hurt them like Shane and Casey had been hurt.

Jake listened quietly, and then Renesmee folded her hand into a fist inside his. "I'm sorry, Jacob," the little girl whispered. "I don't want to be the imprint that hurts people."

The young man in the driver's seat exhaled heavily and then he put both hands back on the steering wheel. "Nessie? Can you do something for me?"

"Of course, Jacob," she promised immediately.

Jake nodded and then looked out the windshield. "Just have some faith, honey. Have some faith that you are who you're supposed to be. None of us are perfect and we all have things about ourselves that scare us…even me. But that doesn't mean that scary stuff has to rule our lives. I refuse to believe that you were meant to have to stay in a car your whole life, to not be able to run and play and _live_. You're not dead, Nessie, and you're _not_ a monster. So just have some faith in yourself."

As his words sank in, Renesmee realized that he'd put some weight behind them, almost as if he was ordering her to believe in herself. The little girl watched the children in their winter coats and snow boots, running around the jungle gym, chasing each other, and she knew that could never be her. When things ran from her, her instinct was to catch them, and sometimes in a dangerous way. But maybe…maybe her Alpha was right. Maybe she didn't have to hide in the car, observing but not living.

In a moment of precise introspective clarity, it occurred to her that her coven did exactly that. They existed in an environment, but they never really lived in it.

If she stayed in the car, she stayed who she was, who her family was, and she chose to be the vampire that she had never quite managed to be. If she left the car, she left that behind, and she chose to be something new, something different than who she had always tried to be. Different was very frightening for the little girl, especially a little girl that spent her every waking moment trying to understand _everything_.

Should she get out of the car or stay? Who was she really?

Her Alpha never asked why Renesmee slipped out of her seatbelt and spent the morning perched on the hood of her mother's car, but he stayed with her and made her giggle with stories of how cool he was before he ever became an Alpha, and how much he had enjoyed fixing up cars and trucks and bikes, and who he thought he could have grown up to be.

Later they were halfway through a bucket of popcorn and an animated movie about wolves that liked to sing and sled around on trees, when the little girl realized something else. There were two parts to her, but there were two parts to Jake as well, to everyone in her Pack that phased. Renesmee wasn't the only one caught in between. She _wasn't_ the only one who struggled with who to be. A sense of belonging filled her, and she hugged her Alpha's arm gratefully. Jake rested a hand on her head and said something softly in Quileute that Renesmee couldn't quite understand, something about imprints and protecting, but Jake was smiling down at her warmly and that made her feel even better.

Then her Alpha stole her soda and flicked a piece of popcorn at her, and as the Alpha/Imprint Popcorn War of 2011 was born, the little girl forgot to think about anything much at all.

* * *

It had been a fun day having the Alpha's attention, but the low winter sun was setting and it was time for the Pack meeting. Jake needed to talk, and he needed to talk to all of them.

Renesmee knew that there had been a discussion as to whether or not she should be included in the Pack meeting, or left to watch cartoons in Sue's living room with Claire. Quil's imprint had insisted on watching Bambi, even though Quil had reminded her repeatedly that it always made her cry, but Claire was being stubborn about it. In truth, Bambi had a tendency to leave Renesmee feeling both sad and guilty, after all she had killed plenty of deer in her life, if never by bullets. So she very politely asked Jake if she could stay in the meeting with the other imprints and he had agreed, at least for the first part of the meeting.

Apparently the Alpha expected the second part of the meeting to become…prickly.

They were all gathered out in the back yard, with no exceptions, and it occurred to Renesmee that it must be a very rare thing for that to happen. Her wolf was the least dominant one in the Pack and as such had slid off to the side and slightly behind the others, giving way to the more dominant wolves. Brady had done the same thing. Kim and Jared were deep in discussion, the wolf looking more exhausted than Renesmee had ever seen any of them, and she wondered if after the death of his brother, if Jared had been getting any sleep.

Renesmee saw the ballet dancer, Paul's imprint, was talking with Emily. By the blush on both Sam and Emily's faces, whatever she was saying must have been very interesting, but this was Renesmee's first Pack meeting. She was trying very hard not to listen in to other people's conversations and to be on her best behavior.

Both Leah and Sims were there, and Renesmee had shied away instinctively from her Alpha's imprint. Sims had been very kind to Renesmee the first time they had met, but the she-wolf was restless, unable to stand still for more than a moment or two and she kept sniffing deeply whenever Renesmee came too closely by. The scent of Renesmee's family obviously was placing the she-wolf on edge, and Renesmee would have felt very badly if it weren't for that fact that Sims tried to give the little girl a reassuring smile.

It wasn't the she-wolf's fault, necessarily, that her smile showed a bit too much teeth.

Embry was staying close to her side, his arm easy around Sims's waist, but he shot Renesmee a kind smile. "Don't worry, Nessie. It's not you," Embry promised. "She's still getting used to everything."

"Yeah, Sims is just hopped up on too much caffeine," Collin chuckled, earning him a snapping of her teeth.

"I think I'm going to eat Collin today," Sims stated decisively, as if talking to herself and ignorant of them around her, and the younger wolf coughed and took a few steps away. Embry smirked and Leah snickered, but Sims was back to sniffing and looking at the trees.

"What _is_ that?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "What the hell am I smelling?"

"My family," Renesmee offered softly, feeling her wolf coming up to stand behind her protectively as the she-wolf's eyes focused on the little girl. Sims seemed to realize that she was worrying the younger imprint, and she visibly tried to calm herself, taking a deep steadying breath before choosing to breathe through her mouth instead of her nose. Sims settled down almost immediately.

"Let me know if we need to bail, sweetheart," Embry was whispering in her ear, but Sims was shaking her head.

"I'm okay, Embry. I'm okay now, it just makes it harder not to phase."

The Alpha had been standing with Paul and the lawn chair bound Seth, speaking quietly together, but his eyes had been following the exchange. Renesmee wondered if anyone else noticed that Jake waited until Sims was calmer before he straightened and stepped to the front and center of the group.

"Alright," Jake ordered briskly, "The Cullens are giving us an hour of time to get this done, and then we need to be back on patrol. Wolves to my right, imprints to my left, and line up by rank," he added, causing the Pack to look at him in surprise.

Renesmee saw her wolf shifting to make himself furthest from Jake, meaning the lowest ranking of them needed to be the furthest away, so she promptly followed suit. It took the others longer to situate themselves out, and Seth needed some help settling himself and his lawn chair off to Jake's right, but when they were done, only the she-wolves remained standing in the middle.

Leah raised an eyebrow at Jake, a small smirk playing across her lips. "Looks like we're the odd women out, Samantha," Leah chuckled, and the shorter she-wolf let her eyes scan the imprints and the wolves before sharing a look with Leah.

"Our rank is between us," Sims said distractedly, and Renesmee had the feeling that the younger she-wolf was talking to the whole Pack, not just the Alpha. Jake frowned at that.

"We'll talk about it later," he rumbled. "Leah, get on my right, Samantha on my left. You're the ranking imprint."

Neither she-wolf moved, and when Jake growled at them, a low dangerous sound, neither one looked particularly impressed.

"That's okay, I don't mind being the ranking imprint," Cassie chirped up cheerfully from where she stood next to Emily. "I'm very good at the whole taking charge thing. Ask Paul, he knows. In fact, I took charge just last night. Twice actually."

"Cass…" Paul growled warningly, glancing over at Renesmee when the little girl tilted her head, and Cassie smiled prettily.

"Oh, I know, Paul. That's why I didn't go into _details_," she waggled her eyebrows at him, and Renesmee realized by the increased smell of blood that the Third was blushing. Renesmee was far too polite to embarrass her Packmate by acknowledging his discomfort, but Collin snickered and Quil coughed to cover a laugh. Glancing across the yard, she saw her wolf was standing and focusing only on Jake, ignoring the wordplay between the others, and so Renesmee did her best to do the same.

The Alpha rolled his eyes and then gave Cassie an indulgent smile. "Thank you for that…enlightenment, Cass, but we are running low on time here and there _are_ children present. A little less of the attack imprint for the moment, okay?"

Cassie grinned and then winked at her Alpha, not looking embarrassed at all for having been chastised in front of the entire Pack. Paul had shifted from embarrassed to mortified, and it occurred to the little girl that Paul's embarrassment of Cassie didn't bother her at all. In fact, she was more cheerful than Renesmee had ever seen her, and Renesmee was confused. She didn't understand why Cassie would be that way. Renesmee would be devastated if she ever embarrassed her wolf, and she looked at him instinctively for confirmation that she wasn't doing so now.

Jack was watching her with a frown on his face, as if sensing her discomfort but not understanding it. He shifted his thumb against his palm, but there was no way that Renesmee was going to interrupt a Pack meeting, her first one, to ask questions. Jack said something softly to her in Quileute that she didn't recognize, causing the eyes of the Pack to shift her way, and she turned crimson. Before she could offer to go back inside and watch cartoons with Claire, therefore not causing any kind of a disturbance, her wolf glanced askance at Kim.

It took Kim a moment to realize what he wanted and then she made a small noise of understanding. "Oh, sorry." Jared's imprint took her hand and Renesmee tried to very politely repeat her question for Kim through the skin contact. Kim blinked and then gave Cassie a frustrated look.

"Because she's always been like that, Nessie," Kim said tightly. "Not every imprint in this Pack treats their wolf with the respect they deserve. Funny, the wolves still treat _them_ with the respect they deserve, so I guess the selfishness is one sided." Now every eye was on Kim, but she held her ground, and next to Jack, Brady stiffened, looking torn.

"As we skip the opening agenda and go straight to the fighting," Seth murmured out of the corner of his mouth to Jake. "I guess my announcements are null and void?"

"Guys, not quite yet," Jake said firmly, "We have other things we have to talk about first."

Jared however was adding his own glare to the group and in a rare moment of rebelliousness, ignored his Alpha's not-quite order. "Yeah, I'd have to say that I support Kim's statement and one up it. There're a couple wolves here that I could say the same thing about, who have been pretty damn selfish." The sixth ranked wolf's eyes landed on Embry pointedly, causing the fourth ranked wolf to bristle.

In the center of the yard, Sims growled at Jared, her arms starting to shake. Leah put a warning hand on Sims' shoulder, but Sims shrugged it off. "What we do—" Sims started to say, but the older wolf interrupted her.

"Affects all of us," Jared said flatly, ignoring the fact that Embry's eyes were darkening as Jared spoke. "And maybe if Embry wasn't so damn distracted by you, he wouldn't have forgotten to watch the news that night, Sims. We would have _known_ to switch patrol routes, and Shane-"

"_**Enough**_." This time every head snapped to Jake, the Alpha's voice dangerous and threatening as he froze them all down in place.

"A leech killed Shane, Jared," Jake continued, his voice softening slightly, and Renesmee could see the love her Alpha had for his wolf, could see that Jake was giving Jared as much leeway as he could spare. "_Neel_ killed Shane, Jared. Not Embry, not Sims, not any one of us. And I know this has been pretty terrible for you, but Embry's your brother too and he's patrolled himself into the ground these last three weeks trying to keep it from happening again. We all have. Do you really think there's a single one of us that doesn't blame ourselves for this happening?"

Jared gritted his teeth, his jaw white with tension, but then he glanced around and saw that Jake's words were true. He flushed and then exhaled miserably, dropping his head. Still determined to drive the point home, Jake looked at his Pack. "Okay, wolf only, raise of hands. Who blames themselves for Shane and Casey?...Samantha, get your hand down, you weren't even phased yet."

"No, but I could have told both of them that they weren't safe here," Sims said quietly, locking eyes with the Alpha, and Jake sighed.

"Yeah, and what good could that have done?" he countered, "You know exactly what a human can do to a vampire. Not much of anything." Renesmee heard Sims mutter something about grenade launchers before falling silent and putting her hand down.

The rest of the wolves had their hands up, with the exception of Jack. When Jake glanced at Jack questioningly, Renesmee's wolf's eyes tightened.

"I would trade my life for either of the ones lost that day, Alpha," Jack said quietly. "But I know who is to blame for our brother's hurt, and it is not us. We have sufficient wolves on patrol, patrol routes are tight, and those running stay focused. The Cold Ones are dangerous…they always have been, and their need for blood has always been as strong as our need to protect our own. The best of them will slip through and if they are hungry, they will kill."

Jared let out a frustrated noise, turning on Jack. "No, that's not good enough. This can't _ever_ happen again," Jared growled, and her wolf merely dipped his head. His eyes grew distant, clouded the way they often did, as if he was seeing and hearing things that Renesmee couldn't see or hear.

"Jacob?" Renesmee said softly, not wanting to bring attention to herself but not liking that Jared was glaring at her wolf the way he was. "Mister Jack is right. There are ways onto the reservation despite the Pack protecting it."

Too many eyes on her, too many looks of horror, and someone growled when she flinched a little away from them. Her hand tightened its grip on Kim's, and she realized that the growl was coming from her wolf. Funny, she wasn't sure that she had ever seen him growl at his Packmates before, but the timbre of his voice lowered threateningly until every eye was off of her but the Alpha's.

"Your coven knows about this, Nessie?" Jake asked softly, and Renesmee shook her head.

"Not that I'm aware of, Jacob," Renesmee said politely. "Not unless Daddy heard me thinking about it. But I was bored one day and I had listened to you and Seth talking about patrol routes. I drew up all the ways that a vampire could infiltrate the reservation, how long they would have before detection, and the percentage of likelihood that they would be able to escape without being killed. If my calculations are accurate, and based on the average speed and intelligence of a vampire, there's a 24.3% chance that in a group of two or more vampires working in concert that at least one of them will be able to reach the center of the reservation without being detected, and a 13.5% chance of that one escaping alive. The others have a 5% chance of escaping alive, at least according to my calculations, which could be wrong. Mister Jack is faster than I thought and you have a second she-wolf now. I'd have to do the averaging again."

They were back to all staring at her, and her wolf had stopped growling. Instead he was watching her with a quizzical expression on his face. Renesmee blushed, and then whispered, "But most of the vampires know to avoid this area, because of the Pack and Mister Rico. Mister Rico is known for giving a hard time to other vampires that come too close to his and Mister Jack's territory, vampires he doesn't like anyway. The ones that pass through are usually lone vampires that don't know any better. The likelihood of one of them infiltrating the reservation all the way to the center is less than five percent, and as for escaping…well, it's less than one percent. Most likely," she added even softer. "I could be wrong, Jacob."

There was a silence between within the Pack, and then the Alpha was walking to her. Renesmee didn't realize that Kim was gripping her hand so hard the human's fingers were turning white, not until Jake took Renesmee's hand from the older imprint. The Alpha settled down on his haunches in front of her and took both of her tiny, pale hands into his huge russet colored ones. He gave her hands a small, reassuring squeeze.

"Ness, honey? Why didn't you tell me?" Jake asked gently, and Renesmee blushed.

"I didn't know if you would be interested, Jacob," she admitted truthfully. "Usually people get sleepy when I tell them my thoughts, so I keep them all down on paper instead."

"Do you have these thoughts still written down, Nessie?" Jacob pressed, and Renesmee nodded. "Would you mind if I borrowed them for a little bit? Read over them some?"

"Of course not, Jacob," Renesmee said, suddenly feeling shy. "They aren't my best thoughts, but I know where I'm keeping them."

Jake looked over his shoulder, and Paul immediately dipped his head. "Yes, Alpha," the Third promised. When the Alpha turned back to her, she was smiling a little. It felt good to know that someone wanted to hear her thoughts, and that they would be so important to her Alpha. She made sure that he knew she was pleased, and the Alpha gave her a smile. It was a tighter smile than normal, and possibly if Renesmee was a different child she would have missed the deceptive calmness in her first friend's voice when he leaned in closer.

"Nessie? Have you ever thought about Neel at all?" Jake asked, and the little girl shook her head.

"If you mean, did I write anything down on paper about him? No, Jacob," Renesmee said, trying to decide what she was allowed to mention. "Mommy and Daddy said that I'm not supposed to talk about him, and I figured that it would be rude to think about something that I wasn't allowed to talk about." Someone whistled low under their breath, and someone else made a pained whining noise.

"_**Renesmee**_," her Alpha said her name, and this time there was weight in his voice. It felt heady, almost like a blanket wrapping around her. It made things feel warm and safe and fuzzy, and Renesmee didn't realize that she had stepped in and wrapped her arms around Jake's neck until the Alpha gathered her up to his chest and hugged her tightly. The feeling of comfort and love washed over her, the feeling of being loved by her Alpha, and the little girl sighed happily.

"Alpha…," her wolf spoke up, sounding concerned, but Jake ignored him.

"Renesmee, honey," her Alpha said, his voice pulling at her even as it soothed her. "Renesmee, what aren't you supposed to say about Neel? It's okay, you can tell me."

It was like talking through a pillow, a big soft pillow that smelled like Jake's shoulder, or maybe that was because her cheek was against his shoulder. Her Alpha really was a comfortable one.

"Because we won't be able to hide what he wants if the Pack gets too close to it," she mumbled. "You give Aunt Alice too many blind spots."

"Alpha…," her wolf said again up in the back of the warm fuzziness that surrounded Renesmee. His distress leaked through the imprint bond, waking Renesmee up a little. "She is too sensitive, Alpha. She will not hold up well under that."

From beneath her blanket of contentment, she felt Jake shake his head, and his voice soften as he asked her in a more soothing tone, "What is your coven hiding, honey? It's okay, you can tell me."

She really didn't want to say, but he really wanted her to do so. Renesmee felt torn, and she didn't realize that her turmoil was causing tears to leak down her cheeks. After all, she felt so good, so safe, so happy…

But as soon as the first tear fell, the pressure to tell Jake what he wanted to know immediately eased off of her. Instead there was just the warmth, and the love, and the belonging.

"Sorry, Jack, I had to try. She's okay," Jake said, and as the Alpha stood with her still in his arms, and it occurred to Renesmee that he was very tall. "I'll ask them myself," Jake added in Quileute, growling dangerously and not realizing that Renesmee could understand enough parts of what he was saying to piece his intention together.

A soft snuffle came from inside the house, followed by a sad little, "_Qwil_!"

The male wolf being called grunted and stepped out of line. "Bambi's mom just ate it again," Quil muttered. "Be right back. And for the record, Jake, if you'd made Claire cry, I'd have bitten you."

"You made Claire cry by putting that damn movie on again, and no one's biting _you_, Quil," Seth chuckled, despite the fact that he was looking pale and uncomfortable from sitting upright this long. "At least this was for a good reason. I think we all want to know just what it is we're missing here."

Next to Leah, Jake's imprint was still watching Renesmee, her brown eyes thoughtful. Then she sniffed the air, wrinkling her nose. "I can smell them stronger," she muttered, shifting on her feet restlessly.

"It's just Alice and Jasper, Sims," Embry told her in his quiet rumble and the she-wolf nodded, but she didn't settle down until Leah bumped a shoulder into her own.

"If you want to mess with any of them, wait for Rose and Emmett. They're more fun," Leah told Sims, and the other she-wolf smiled slightly.

"We're running out of time, and I got sidetracked," Jake stated, walking back to the front of the group, keeping Renesmee in his arms as he did. When he got to the porch, he set her down. "Nessie? Are you hungry at all? Because this next part is for the adults only, and I think that I'd rather have you inside with Claire instead of outside with us."

Renesmee thought about it, and then gazed at her Alpha apologetically. "I'm sorry, Jacob. I'm not hungry right now, but unless someone was inside with us, I'd probably better stay outside with one of the Pack."

Jacob nodded, and then he lifted her back up to his shoulder. "Okay, honey, here's the deal. I'm going to put you to sleep for a while, okay? Just take a little snooze and I'll wake you up when the boring stuff is over."

The little girl looked at Jacob quizzically, pressing her hand to his neck to ask him how before remembering herself. "Jacob? How are you going to do that?"

"With my super awesome Alpha powers," he teased, planting a wet kiss on her forehead. Her wolf whined unhappily and Jake gave Jack a look. "Jack, she'll be _fine_."

"Ooh, she's getting the Alpha whammy," Cassie murmured. "Paul? Do you care if Jake whammies me next?"

"That sounds _so_ wrong, mama imprint," Collin snickered, but Renesmee wasn't listening as well because Jake was talking to her again, and the warm blanket was back around her, filling her ears with a pleasant fluff that made everything quieter, muffled as if she was sliding back in a tunnel. And all around her was love and comfort and protection, her Alpha telling her to go to sleep because everything…everything was…was just fine…

The little girl's eyes fluttered and her head began to slump against her Alpha's shoulder.

Renesmee supposed that Jake had intended on her to go to sleep completely, but there were two sides to Renesmee, and while her human side was quite willing to succumb to the Alpha's request, her vampire side wasn't quite as willing. So instead of sleeping, Renesmee stayed somewhat awake, observing the Pack through partially closed eyelids and hearing their voices. It was like watching television when almost asleep, knowing what was going on but not really caring.

When Jake was content that she was out enough to the world to keep her from being upset, he shifted her more comfortably in his arms and turned to address the Pack.

"Here's the deal, guys. We're seventeen strong, wolves and imprints together. This is the largest Pack we've ever had, and we should be more powerful than ever. Instead we're weaker. I know what Jack says, that there was no stopping the craziness that happened, but that's not good enough for me. I need to know that my Pack will listen to each other, will trust each other, and will support each other. And I need to know that you will all listen to and trust _me_."

Jake let that sink in, and then he continued. "There's too much division between the imprints and the wolves alike. So today we're all getting something off of our chests, the thing that's the most important to us but that we haven't been saying, the thing that upsets us the most. No everyday shit, make this about Pack and Pack only. Then together as a Pack, we let it go and we move on."

They shifted, looking unhappy, and Jake sighed. "Guys, I _know_, okay? I know this sucks, but we're going to be doing a lot of trust exercises from here on out, and this starts now. Cassie, you first. Tell us what's bothering you the most, and make it clear and to the point. No talking circles around us."

The tiny blonde woman rarely frowned, but she frowned now. Finally she raised her eyes to Jake and said simply, "I feel like I'm a prisoner here in La Push. And aside from the Pack, no one likes me. It's lonely and it's sad, and Collin and Paul are the only ones that seem to understand that." Cassie gave Paul an apologetic look, and held the Third's eyes with her own.

"And I recognize that I made choices that led me here," Cassie admitted, continuing to speak to her wolf. "But at least in normal jails, no one would look at me the way that you all do now. I don't need pity for being me and Paul doesn't need pity for being stuck with me. The problems that led me here started a long time before I met Paul, and the only thing I have to be ashamed of has _nothing_ to do with any of you. I _want_ to be happy here, and I'm _trying_ to be happy here, but I won't do it by cringing and acting ashamed of who I am. If that makes me a disrespectful imprint, then that's between Paul and myself. He at least is honest about how he feels about me."

Paul looked like he wanted to move to her, but instead he nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. "We just want you safe, Cass," he rumbled quietly, and the imprint nodded.

"Yeah, I know. It still feels like jail, though."

There was quiet after her words, and then Emily cleared her throat. "So I guess I'm next." She hesitated for a moment and then her eyes hardened. Her words came fast and were aimed at the wolves. "Yes, I know Sam still loves Leah. No, I don't hate him for it, but I do hate everyone sneaking around my back like I'm too stupid to see it. Yes, he loves her but he loves me too. We're imprinted, and we care about each other, and we're trying our best to make our relationship work. So you can all kiss my ass, it's my life and I'll do with it what I want. I don't need pity either."

Even Cassie looked a little shocked at that one, and Sam's jaw had dropped. Emily flushed a bit and then shrugged. "Well, it's true. And you've all been tiptoeing around me since Mexico. I'm not an idiot."

Then it was Kim's turn, and they could see her struggling with her words, her eyes flickering between Jared and Jake. Finally she gritted her teeth and turned to Sims and Embry. "I'm sorry that your girlfriend was imprinted on, Embry, because that must have been terrible for you. And I'm sorry she's too much of a stubborn bitch to leave you. But you have _ruined_ our Pack over her. You've put Jake through hell over her, and you were _fine_ before all of this."

Embry and Sims both snarled, each presumably at the insults to each other, but Kim dug in and kept going. "And if it wasn't for you needing Sims gone while you struggled with your wolf, then Collin and Brady wouldn't have needed to go to Montana," she growled. "And I don't give a _flying fuck_ what they did to you down there, Sims, because you and Embry have been doing whatever the hell you felt like doing since the day you came here. But Brady…"

Her voice cracked, and suddenly Kim had tears in her eyes, she was so angry.

"Sims, all you had to do was stop fighting for _one second_, one stupid second, and just _work_ with Jake," Kim said fiercely. "I don't _care_ how much you and Embry love each other. You can both leave this Pack and walk off a cliff for all I care, loving each other every step of the way. But I swear to god, if you do anything, _anything_ that makes Brady get hurt again…" She broke off, voice shaking, but then she steadied it and kept on speaking. "Do you know that he still has nightmares every night? Do you _know_ what they did to him down there? Or are you two so fucking self-absorbed that you don't care about that either?"

"Kim, stop," Brady pleaded, his face softening as he started to break rank to go to her. "Kim, it's okay, really." Jake's upraised hand stopped him and Jared both. Jared shuddered a little, and then he exhaled.

"I'm with her on this one too, man," Jared told Embry in a hard, angry voice. "You threw our Pack away for a piece of ass, and it hurt us. Then you threw Jake away for that same piece of ass, and it's still hurting us."

Sims snarled again, and Embry looked stricken and furious in equal amounts. Sims went to move towards him, but Leah gripped her wrist, leaning in and whispering something in her ear that made Sims stop. Instead her expression went flat and dangerous.

It was Jack's turn, and when the Alpha nodded at him, Jack's expression turned conflicted. He glanced at them all, and then he looked at Jake.

"It makes me unhappy that you claimed fault with the Calgary Alpha," Jack said softly, looking very uncomfortable at having to say so to Jake. "I have not had an Alpha for a long time, and I would not like to lose the one I have gained."

Jake gave Jack a nod and then rumbled, "That's between myself and Tupkuk, Jack. You don't need to worry about it." Jack flinched at the other wolf's name, and his eyes grew flat.

Then it was Brady's turn. The young wolf shifted uncomfortably but then stood still, his expression pained and angry in turns. "If someone had put me on patrol on Christmas instead of the others, I could have scented the leech," Brady growled. "My nose is better than Sam's, Leah's, or Jack's noses. If it had been me, I could have saved Shane. I think about it every single fucking day, why you didn't put me on patrol. It's not like I have a family that gives a shit on the holidays anyways."

"Brady, that wasn't your fault," Jared said quietly, but Brady was staring at the ground in helpless anger, regret etched into his face. Brady looked so miserable that this time Kim did break rank, and she went over to the young wolf, hugging him as hard as she could. Brady looped his arms over her shoulders, giving Jared a wounded, guilty look, and the older wolf sighed.

"Kid, it's _not_ your fault," Jared repeated in a softer voice. "And shit…if you had been there, I could have lost _both_ of you."

Brady didn't say anything, and by then Quil had come back out, taking his place in line. Quil looked at them, and then shook his head, gaze drifting to the Beta in the chair. "I'm still pissed that Seth ordered me to get Sims that night. You took my best friend from me that night, man. Emb's never gonna forgive me for that shit and I don't expect him to, but still…you fucked me over, Seth."

Seth didn't say anything, but he did look regretful.

Collin cleared his throat. "I'm mad at myself the most, for what happened on Christmas. And if you're going to throw around blame for Brady, you need to throw some my way. We split up in Montana, and if I had stayed with him, maybe we could have fought our way free."

"You did what you were ordered to, Collin," Paul said, for the first time breaking his silence, but Collin just shrugged.

"Still doesn't change the truth, papa wolf," Collin muttered, scuffing his foot in the dirt.

It was Jared's turn and everyone was holding their breath to see what he would say, but Jared simply exhaled. "I don't know if I can pick anything. There's a lot of shit I'm upset about now, and I've bitched enough today. But I'm going to say the thing that upset me the most, up until Shane and Casey, was Paul taking Brady to Montana. You took shit care of my kid, Paul. I've still got half a mind to kick your ass for that."

Paul nodded, as if he expected that, and then turned to Sam. Sam was standing with his arms crossed, looking stonily at the Alpha.

"Jake, what's the point of all this?" Sam asked, "Just to get each other more pissed off?"

"Just say your piece, Sam," Jake sighed, and Sam gave Jake a flat stare.

"I just did, Jake. That's all I have to say."

Jake rolled his eyes and shifted Renesmee higher up on his shoulder. "Good talk, Sam."

And then it was Embry's turn. If ever there was a wolf on the hotspot, it was Embry. A lot of the problems being thrown out had been directed at him and Sims, and the weight of his guilt was heavy on his face. Obviously he was struggling with what he wanted to say, and there was a brief flash of hurt that passed over Sims's face before she whispered, "It's okay, Embry. Just say it."

"What upsets me the most is that I don't know if they're right or not, sweetheart," Embry whispered back. "And I just want you too damn much to care."

"They aren't right," Sims growled, glaring at the Pack, but she had no active supporters. Even Leah's expression made it clear that the older she-wolf wasn't going to defend Sims and Embry's decision to stay together. "They _aren't_ right, Embry and they need to stop throwing shit your way. If you want to blame anyone, blame me, Embry didn't-"

"You don't need to protect me, Sims," Embry cut her off and the she-wolf shivered, a single movement that went from her hair to her toes.

"Don't I?" she asked harshly. "They're trying to make the world your fault and it's _not_. And you're just standing there and taking it."

"We're not saying that, Sims," Jared spoke up again. "But it could have saved us all a hell of a lot of trouble if Embry had stepped away when Jake imprinted."

The she-wolf rounded on Jared, and once again Leah intervened, her hand gripping Sims's upper arm like an iron band. "Sorry Embry and I have some fucking backbone, Jared," Sims snapped, tremoring again. "You and Kim can have fun playing the status quo all you want."

"This is exactly what I'm saying!" Kim spoke up in frustration. "It's like you're oblivious to anyone but him! Don't you care at all who gets hurts?"

"Back off her, Kim," Embry snarled, but Jared was snarling at Embry.

"Actually Kim has kept her mouth shut for a really long time, and she's just as much a part of this Pack as anyone. Kim gets to talk as much as she wants, Embry."

"Who ranks who, Jared?" Embry growled back, and Jared's fists clenched right about the time Jake decided enough was enough.

The Alpha shared another look with Seth and then barked, "_Cram it_, both of you. Jared, Kim, you've made your points. Sims, get in the woods if you think you're going to phase. Embry, just because they feel that way doesn't make them _right_, so calm down. Paul, your turn."

The Third grunted, hesitating. If there was any of them that didn't want to air his dirty laundry out for them to see, it was Paul. Finally he looked at his imprint. "You bailed on me, Cass," Paul said softly. "I'm still trying to get over that. Half the time I was gone, I couldn't help wondering if you were even going to be here when I got home."

Cassie made a sad noise in her throat, and like Kim she broke ranks to go to her wolf. She hugged him tightly, whispering that she was sorry she had hurt him like that, and Paul folded her up in his arms, keeping her against his chest.

"Can Sam have his turn back so I can have a hug too?" Emily asked a bit petulantly, looking lonely on her now empty side of the imprint lineup. "Sam, tell them you chop wood too much or something." Sam smiled for the first time that meeting, and he walked over to her, wrapping an arm over her shoulders and tugging her to his side.

"It looks like your lineup is falling apart, man," Seth chuckled from his lawn chair, and then he looked at his Pack, his face sobering as he watched them. He was watching Sims, where she stood trembling next to Leah. "I already said it once," Seth said quietly, "But I'll say it again. Thank you, Samantha Carter, for everything that you have done for this Pack, myself included."

Seth's eyes grew harder as he looked at his wolves. "She didn't ask for us, she didn't ask for Jake, and she didn't ask for Calgary. Kim, Jared? I get that you two are protective as hell of Brady, but Sims and Embry aren't the bad guys here. Life happens, guys. Shit happens, too, and it sucks but even if Emb had played it by the book, shit still happens. It's not Embry's fault he got sick, it's not Sims' fault Jake imprinted on her, and it's not their fault Calgary happened. Calgary was a dick, and now he's a dead dick. Neel's a dick too, and a soon to be dead one. What upsets _me_ the most is that we all can't seem to see past our own personal frustrations to realize that none of us ever asked for this, for any of this. We need to be pulling together, now, not hurting each other and blaming each other and pulling apart."

The Beta took a deep breath and then turned to Jake. "And Jake? Forget everything I just said about fault, because you and I should have _kept_ all of the bad shit from happening to them. They're our Pack, and we let them down."

The Alpha nodded at that solemnly, before turning to the she-wolves in the middle of the yard. Seth's words had caused Sims to calm down slightly, but what had caused her to calm more was the fact that Embry had broken ranks too and had come up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Only Quil and Jack were still where they had originally stood in line, because Jared had shifted over to Kim and Brady, and Collin had thrown an arm over Brady's shoulders. Quil looked lonely and Jack was watching all of them with an unreadable expression.

"Girls, your turn," Jake said, and Leah smirked.

"Jake?" the she-wolf asked. "When has either one of us ever _not_ said what was on our minds?"

"Good point," the Alpha muttered, and a murmur of amusement rippled through the Pack at that.

Jake must have stopped focusing on how deeply he was keeping her out, because Renesmee felt herself beginning to go further down the tunnel, the Alpha's words softer in her still fluff filled ears. The heady comforting feeling was growing stronger, and it made Renesmee want her own wolf. She was promptly shifted into another pair of arms, these harder than Jake's, slimmer, and slightly cooler. Her wolf almost never touched her, and most definitely didn't carry her, so she smiled and laid her cheek against his shoulder and felt her eyes grow heavy again.

Her wolf bounced her once, as if she was younger than she really was, and this time she fell into a heavier sleep with her hand on her wolf's throat.

"Look around you," Jake was saying, although his voice was coming from the end of the tunnel. "Even now, even upset, you can't keep a divide between you. That's because we're a Pack, and we're meant to stand together. And you're all forgetting something very important: everything that we do, everything that happens to this whole Pack is on _my_ shoulders. My fault, my decisions. Cassie's restrictions are _my_ decision. Not fighting Embry over Sims is _my_ decision. Sending those that went to Montana was _my_ decision. I know how good Brady's nose is and I kept him off holiday patrol, I know it makes it harder for Sam to move on when I keep having him phase, and I know Emb has been too tired these last few months, that he's had too much on his plate."

The Alpha grew quiet at that, sounding sad. "But I still made those decisions anyways. I knew the risk of sending mine and another imprint away from the Pack, but I did it anyways. I knew that it would be dangerous to send Cassie further away from the Pack last summer but I did it anyways. _I did_, guys. I made these decisions for all of us. And whether they were right or they were wrong, they were the best decisions that I knew to make at the time. And the same goes for Seth when I was gone. We made the best decisions we could, and I've learned some things. And I sure as hell regret a lot of things, but I can't change them now. The best I can do is to not make those same mistakes. If you're not behind me, the option to leave the Pack is yours. I don't like it, and I don't want to lose a single one of you, but the option is there, right now. If anyone wants out because of the way I've handled things, now's your time to do it."

Silence, then a sigh. "Samantha Carter, you're _my_ imprint. You're the only one that _can't_ go anywhere. Get your hand back down. What is it with you raising your hand today?"

"I'm trying to be supportive by participating, Jacob Black. Plus I'm okay with a change in command. How about instead of breaking up the Pack, we put Jared and Kim in charge? That way they run out of people to blame."

"Sims," Embry chastised, and the she-wolf growled lightly.

"_What_? They're pissing me off! You think I don't care what happened to Brady, Kim? Well, sorry to pierce your happy little bubble, but I _killed_ someone for Brady. What have you done lately? Given him a cookie and patted his shoulder?"

Kim's eyes flashed and she opened her mouth to snarl a retort but Brady clamped his hand over Kim's mouth, angling his body so that the imprint and the she-wolf couldn't see each other anymore because he was in between.

"Sims, _enough_," this time it was Brady saying it, and his voice had an odd tone to it, as if trying to plead with her. "Please don't attack Kim for caring about me."

The she-wolf huffed, leaning back into Embry and glaring at all of them and then Leah suddenly laughed. "Was I this bad when I first phased?" the older she-wolf asked the Pack curiously. "Because she's been pissed off for weeks now."

"Worse," nine male wolves muttered simultaneously.

Leah blinked. "Huh."

"Focus people," Jake sighed. "Okay, so everyone's staying? Good. Kim, get over it. I know that's harsh, but do it. I get it, I really do, but I need you behind us now, not against us. Kim?"

Brady took his hand off of her mouth, and Kim glared at the Alpha this time. The imprint could be stubborn as hell, but Jake could be more stubborn, and when it was clear Kim was losing this battle of the wills, tears suddenly flooded to her eyes. "Fine," she whispered. "I'll try. But I mean it, I'm going to murder the next person that gets Jared or Brady hurt. I'm tired of you people caring only about yourselves."

That was as much as Kim would give, and Jake nodded. "Thank you, Kim. Jared? If anyone has reason to want out of this Pack, you do. Are you in or out?"

The older wolf muttered that he was in, but he looked unhappy, and Jake frowned. "Jared, now's your chance. We're not doing this again. No one's asking you not to be hurt, but I need to know if you're still able to run with us. If you aren't I get it. I hate it, but I get it. Are you and Kim out or in?"

Brady was watching Jared, looking torn again and very unsettled and perhaps it was that which made Jared's jaw loosen. "We're in," Jared said quietly. "This is our Pack and we're not walking out no matter how hard it gets."

The group had the kindness to not acknowledge Brady's sharp exhale of relief.

Jake nodded, and then turned to his imprint and his brother. "Sims, Embry, look at your Pack and acknowledge that your choices do affect them. Calgary wasn't your fault, and neither was Shane, but acknowledge that what you do can and does hurt people."

Embry whispered that he would, looking tired and guilty. Sims said nothing, simply watching Embry's arms. Jake sighed at the cold set of her shoulders and then turned to the rest of his Pack.

"Cassie?" Jake said, even more gently than before. "You killed a man and it killed you. If you don't think I don't feel how much that hurts you every single day, then you don't have any clue how tightly you're bound to this Pack. It's not pity we feel for you, it's sympathy. We _care_, but you have more walls around you than you realize. Let us in, honey, and we can help you. Real families are like that, and we're a real family. Paul? Stop punishing your imprint for taking off, it's not fair. You and I both know she wasn't herself right then."

Paul grunted and had the grace to look embarrassed.

"Oh, and Embry?" the Alpha added, causing Embry's dark eyes to raise. "Punch Quil in the face and call it good. Seth gave Quil an order he couldn't get around, and that was on my order. Holding it against Quil is petty. Grow up, man."

Embry flushed again, but Sims was whispering something to him that made Embry glance at Quil. Quil, who was very resolutely staring at his feet.

"If you try to lecture me, pup, I'm coming up there and kicking your ass," Sam grunted and Jake suddenly flashed the previous Alpha a wide grin.

"Sam, you're done phasing, unless you decide to," Jake promised. "No more extra patrols, no more covering when we need you to. You've done a good job, and I'm grateful for all you've taught us. Now get some rest, man, and enjoy trying to be normal for a while. Go chop wood or whatever it is that you do."

The Alpha looked around at his Pack, many of which looked abashed, some who still were fighting with frustrations, but all of whom had clustered even tighter together.

"We're all we've got, guys," Jake said softly. "Be mad, be hurt, but do it together. We almost lost Seth, and the same could happen again to any one of us. Even we don't live long enough to be able to waste the moments we're getting here."

The Alpha cleared his throat and then a little voice called out from the house, her voice a despairing wail. "_Qwil_! It happened _again_!"

The stocky wolf blinked, and then barked out a low laugh. "Then stop rewinding the damn movie, Claire!" Quil called back, shaking his head as he went back into the house. Quil clapped Jake on the shoulder as he went by and grinned. "Good talk, Jake."

The Alpha nodded sagely. "Yeah, it was one of my best," he decided with a smirk. Then Jake's smirk grew as he kicked Seth's chair. "I think we all know what my biggest complaint is."

"Oww!" Seth whined pitifully. "What is it with people hitting me today? Chancy came over and you wouldn't believe what she did to me…"

Jake ignored him and kicked the Beta's chair again. "Say it, Seth."

Seth glared at Jake murderously, feeling all of the Pack's eyes on him. "No."

"_Say it, Seth_," the Alpha growled and Seth sighed overly dramatically, slumping in his lawn chair and rubbing his scar pointedly to show Jake just how cruel the Alpha was being.

"…I was a bad, bad Beta," Seth muttered embarrassedly.

Jake smiled and stretched. "Yep, one of my best. Meeting over."

* * *

"Alpha, can I make a request?"

Jake, Paul, and Jack were walking back to the coven, and thus far the least dominant wolf in the Pack had stayed silently at their heels, shy to be with both leaders at the same time. Bella's car could have fit all four of them, but Paul and Jake had some talking to and wanted some time to think about what had happened that day, particularly what Jack's imprint had told them. Renesmee was still passed out, her bronze ringlets falling over the Alpha's shoulder as he carried her, and it occurred to Jack that he was paying particularly close attention to her breathing. Jake had been deep in conversation with Paul, but he paused at the quiet interrupting.

"What's up, Jack?" the Alpha asked over his shoulder. "Did you want to carry her?"

A small flash of regret crossed Jack's face as he admitted, "Yes, Alpha, but it would be best if she stayed with you. Her coven does not want me that close to her."

"They still haven't backed off that shit?" Paul rumbled, raising an eyebrow to Jack, and the ancient wolf shrugged.

"I have become…accustomed to their wishes and am trying to respect them," Jack answered. "They have been attempting the same with me. It has been easier since the Cold One came through, and I do not want for that to change."

"Give them some time, Jack," Jake suggested, shifting the sleeping child on his shoulder. "Even Captain Crypt isn't completely heartless. You've been good for her, anyone can see that."

"I hadn't thought about it, but I can see what you mean," Paul mused. "She's not as tightly wound as she used to be, is she?"

Despite himself, Jack growled a little at his Third's words and Paul gave him a placating smile. "I just mean that she used to be fragile, Jack, always trying to make sure she did and said the right thing and falling apart if she didn't. No offense intended to yours, brother."

Jack nodded and ducked his head, flushing slightly beneath the amusement of his Packmates.

"Anyways, what was that request, Jack?" the Alpha asked, sharing a smirk with Paul. "Before you bite Paul for saying the wrong thing as Paul so often does."

"I have rarely bitten my Thirds, Alpha," Jack murmured in reply. "They are often far more swift than they are given credit for."

"Yeah, but you _used_ to be the Third, Jack," Jake reminded him, eyes twinkling.

The ancient wolf allowed his lips to curve slightly. "One must be swift if they attempt to outrun themselves. But I am no longer Third and have no need for such abilities. The Third may run until he catches himself, and I will be content to lay and wait for him. Eventually his run will be over."

Paul snorted at that and Jake chuckled, a deep rumbling noise.

"You're in a good humor, considering we're about to pick a fight with the coven," the Alpha decided, and Jack merely shrugged, reaching forward to gently turn his imprint's head. She had shifted in her slumber and had squashed both her nose and her mouth face down into Jake's neck and could no longer breathe clearly.

Jack pursed his lips. "It is not my decision to make, this discussion with our Cold One allies, and the discussion does not involve me unless my involvement will be requested. I am strong and fast and can fight this day, and my imprint is content. I have no need to be ill at ease." His voice changed slightly at the end, indicating that perhaps his last comment wasn't completely truthful. His Alpha already knew him far too well, and Jake eyeballed Jack over his shoulder.

"Jack? Spill it."

"She is still young," Jack murmured, slightly plaintively. "And you are heavy handed, Alpha. Perhaps my imprint could be the last imprint volunteered when you next feel the need to put one to sleep?"

Paul barked out a laugh and shook his head. "If you think Jake is bad, you should have seen what Seth did to Cassie when we first met. He Beta whammied her so hard that she slept for hours. I was half sick thinking she wasn't going to wake up at all, and all I got from Seth was an 'oops'. What a dumbass."

Jake, however, looked a tad bit embarrassed. "Yeah, I was thinking myself that she's out more deeply than I would have wanted. Bells is going to give me an earful over this one. Here, Jack, break the rules and try to wake her up some. I'll say I made you do it and cover for you."

The ancient wolf tilted his head at that, but then he accepted his imprint. She was very lightweight, but not as much as most children. Cold Ones tended towards a heaviness, and it was obvious that the child he held was neither fully human nor fully Cold One.

As it still did, the unfairness of her parentage made Jack angry. To become Cold One against one's will was a terrible thing, even if one was only half that way.

To curb his anger, Jack began singing a story to his imprint, knowing that her mind was clever and would awaken if given something of enough interest. So in his low, roughened voice Jack sang of four young Kwòlíyoť brothers whom had taken their canoe in search of elk. They had found a man upon the shore, a man who wanted to trade their good arrows for his own useless ones. Tricked, the four brothers traded their good arrows for useless ones, and the man became an elk and killed them.

Stirring at the sound of his voice, Renesmee's eyelashes began to flutter. So he sang of a fifth brother, their youngest brother Toscobuk, who went to find his four missing brothers. Instead he found their empty canoe, and upon finding it, saw a man upon the shore. That man wanted to trade Toscobuk's good arrows for the man's useless ones, but Toscobuk would not be tricked. His spirit power was strong, and he could not be swayed. So the man went away and came back an elk, and Toscobuk shot four good arrows into the elk, one for each of his fallen brothers. The elk lay dead.

The child was waking, so Jack sang of Toscobuk skinning the elk that had killed his brothers, and finding the elk skin far too large to take back home. So he threw the skin up into the sky. One need only to look up and they would see the holes in the elk skin where Toscobuk had staked it to the ground, and where the elk's tail had been. Turning his imprint in his arms, Jack showed her where, and she smiled sleepily because she knew that constellation.

"Mister Jack, that's Cassiopeia," Renesmee mumbled, turning her face back into his shoulder. "That's where your star is. Yapótalli, Mister Jack…"

"I know, but you must wake up, imprint," he told her, noticing that that her breathing was slowing. "Renesmee? Alila-chíd, Renesmee?"

"I'm not doing what I'm told, Mister Jack," the little girl answered, and then she smiled as her eyes closed again. Jack smiled slightly but then he frowned when he realized that she was doing exactly that.

"Xwpá, Renesmee," Jack promised her. "When we get you homes, you can sleep then."

"Nu huh," she shook her head, arguing with him because she knew that he would not grow angry or not want to be her friend even if she did so. Jack knew this because of her palm against his lower throat, before the child remembered to close her fist. "Xáxi, Mister Jack."

The ancient wolf tugged one of her curls and smiled a little wider. "_Xwpá_, Renesmee," he repeated and she wrinkled her nose at him.

"No, _xáxi_, Mister Jack. I was dreaming that Jacob was a frog," Renesmee told them all groggily. "And I was the frog princess and we were hoping along down Alpha street, and Aunt Alice was unhappy because I was wearing green and I clashed with Jacob. But I had just changed and we were late to Swan Lake. And Ksanochka was dancing the lead and I was supposed to be her lead bubble. I'm not really sure why but she promised me that I was doing a very good job at it…I was going…to dance…the bubble…"

"Xwpá, Packmate and imprint," Jack finally said, using a rare note of authority in his tone. "_Wake up_, Renesmee, you are sleeping too deeply."

And because she was a very well behaved child, Renesmee decided to do her best to wake up, even if it was much harder than normal for her. Her fist had opened again, her thoughts interrupting Jack's own, and when he realized just how much trouble the child was actually having in waking, Jack felt justified in giving his Alpha a frustrated look.

Jake coughed, looking embarrassed. "I didn't think I whammied her _that_ hard," the Alpha muttered to Paul, who just shrugged. The older La Push wolf was still looking up at the stars, having listened to the story much more intently then Jake had.

"Did he know, Mister Jack?" Renesmee asked sleepily, yawning against his bare shoulder, her sharp teeth grazing him before she remembered cover them. If she had been a true Cold One, that tiny scratch may have been enough to kill him. "M'sorry."

"I am unharmed, imprint," Jack reassured her, and she nodded.

"Mister Jack, did Toscobuk know that the elk killed his brothers?"

"In his heart, he knew," he murmured to her. "When one loses a brother it is as if he has lost part of himself. To lose four is a great suffering. Toscobuk wept for many days from his loss, and he could not be comforted, but he said that he knew upon seeing the elk that it had taken his brothers. Having killed the one that killed his brothers, he found peace despite his grief."

Jake blinked and then stared at Jack. "I've heard that story all my life, but you're talking as if you were there."

The ancient wolf had been watching his imprint, who was finally awake enough to be set down to her feet without fear of her falling. Jack did, however, hold her hand. The child seemed a bit wobbly. It took him a moment to realize that his Alpha had addressed him and Jack tried to be apologetic through his body posture, but he became distracted again. The wobbly imprint was going from wobbly to stumbling.

Jack immediately picked her back up. "Alpha?" the ancient wolf said firmly, knowing that even the most submissive of wolves had the right to intercede with the Alpha over their imprint. "Next time, please put me to sleep instead. My imprint is not suited for it. And yes, I was not close with Toscobuk, but T'si…my previous Alpha and he were close. He was my previous Alpha's grandson. After the death of his grandchildren, my previous Alpha had no more…at least not until later."

Later, after T'sikáti had finally found a way to stop phasing. Later, right before the most import person in Jack's life had chosen to die. It was a wound that felt freshly made, even if it was two hundred years old, and time had not assuaged it in the least. So Jack fell silent, carrying his imprint over to his Packmates and taking comfort from the fact that even if he was still hurting, he was not hurting alone.

The dead Alpha in his mind, the one that was softening in the presence of his living Alpha, thought that was a good thing. And maybe one day, if the fishhook could learn that there was life after loss, then the fishhook could let the fish go—

Suddenly T'sikáti's voice was gone because there were other, softer thoughts in Jack's head. The little girl was growing hungry and hoped that she could still have dessert tonight after her dinner, even though it was getting late. Her wolf looked sad, so maybe he could have some dessert as well. Maybe—

"Alpha, am I needed at your side tonight?" Jack asked suddenly, causing Jake to blink again as Jack passed his imprint over to the Alpha. "If not, I would prefer to be left to myself."

Jake shared a concerned look with Paul and then Paul nodded as if something had passed between them. Jack was too polite to read their body language, and too distracted by his thoughts to even wonder what they would have thought.

"If that's what you need, Jack," Jake agreed mildly before giving Renesmee a white-toothed grin. "Come on, Nessie, let's go see if I can still make your mother get mad enough to squawk at me."

"Vampires don't squawk, Jacob," Renesmee yawned again, and Jake chuckled evilly when she added, "We're much too dignified." When she realized that Jack was leaving, the little girl put a hand to her stomach, in that silent expression of their first understanding, and Jack touched his throat. She smiled at him, and then went back to focusing on the Alpha, who was making squawking noises that had the little girl giggling.

Jack dipped his head politely to the Third and turned back to slip deeper into the forest. To his dismay, the Paul followed at his heels, Paul's mannerism saying that the Third was content to do so and wouldn't be going anytime soon. Considering that Jack could do nothing about it, he merely walked. Silently the Third followed.

They made it back to the border line to their ancestral home, skirted that line around the reservation twice, before finally Jack sighed and sat down. When the Alpha was gone, the voices that had beat so relentlessly into his head grew louder, and even the presence of the Third wasn't enough to soften them to silence. Resting an elbow on his knee, Jack placed his chin upon his arm and stared at the ground in front of him.

The Third remained standing, as if on guard, as if guarding _Jack_ from the outside world. It made the ancient wolf feel embarrassed that the Alpha felt need to send the Third to protect him, but at the same time it made him feel more at peace.

"I am not unwell, Third," Jack murmured. "The Alpha most likely will have greater need of you."

"Jake can pick a fight with the leeches without me," Paul grunted. "He'll probably do better alone, anyways, because they get pissy when we bring in more wolves and gang up on them. Jake will find out what they are hiding about Neel and let us know."

The ancient wolf nodded in acceptance of that, and fell silent again. His head hurt, always now, except for when his imprint was speaking to him through her gift. Her voice in his head was different from theirs, kinder, easier, and it was tempting to use his imprint to block them out forever. But Jack would not do that, and he would not use a child to gain respite from his own punishments. Child or adult, he would never use her that way.

"When you tried to heal Seth, it fucked you up, huh?"

Paul was watching him, and Jack wasn't sure what to say. So he settled into a cross-legged position and rolled his head, cracking his neck several times in an attempt to relieve himself of the strain. The Third dropped down in front of Jack, balancing on his heels, and even though Paul was in the higher position, Jack slumped downwards anyways in an attempt to give his Third more height. Of all of the wolves in his Pack, it was the Third that Jack perhaps respected the most deeply.

"Today was about healing, Jack," Paul said quietly, staring over the top of Jack's head into the forest behind him. "Our Pack's been hurt a lot in the last year, but we're healing. Talking shit out was good today, but you always stay so silent. If I ask, will you talk to me willingly? Jake's orders to not question you are still standing, so I won't grill you. But you know that you can talk to me…or if not me, than someone in the Pack, right? Anyone you want, man, but you need to talk to _someone_. This shit isn't healthy."

Jack exhaled heavily and shifted sideways to lean against a nearby stump, its tree felled in a storm the previous spring.

"What would you have me say, brother?" Jack asked tiredly. "I am an old wolf who has felt and seen and known many things. It would take a lifetime to tell of them all."

"Then tell me why you shoved your imprint at Jake and ran away," Paul grunted. "When she's older, she's going to notice that stuff, Jack, and she's going to get hurt by it."

"My imprint notices everything already, Packmate," Jack smiled slightly. "Far more than the rest of us do." Jack's smile slid from his face and he felt the years press upon his shoulders as he stared at the ground near Paul's feet. "But yes, she will notice, and she will ask. And I will tell her the truth, that I will not let her be a crutch for me."

Paul thought about that, mulling it over, and then he frowned. "She's a crutch because…?"

"She quiets those that have long since made their opinions clear," the ancient wolf answered. "I will not hide behind a child, nor a woman, nor an imprint," Jack stated stubbornly, and Paul nodded in understanding.

"She brings you mental peace, and you won't allow that," the Third acknowledged, his voice lowering carefully, almost as if trying to soften the words that were about to come. "Jack? Can I tell you something? I know you hear voices in your head, and I know you think that the ancestors and the spirits of the earth are talking to you…but all we hear is _you_, brother. We hear you, and _only_ you, berating yourself constantly. And we hear it even more so since you tried to help Seth. I sometimes wonder if it's not the ancestors that are so angry at you, but you being angry at yourself."

The ancient wolf stiffened, and then gritted his teeth. "You do not understand, Packmate. You are Tlokwali—," Jack started, and Paul raised a hand to cut him off.

"Jack, there's no separation between us. You call yourself Pack, but us Tlokwali. You make yourself less, and it's not going to keep flying with us. We've given you a year to adjust so far, and you've done well. Very well. But we need more. You _are_ one of us."

"A wolf that has been cast from our home is no longer Tlokwali, Third," Jack said simply, but he fought his growing confusion. He was right, right? He was outcast, and that would never change.

"A wolf that has been welcomed back in regains that status back. _You are Tlokwali, Jack_. You are one of us," Paul continued on, speaking calmly but firmly, and Jack bent his head. Everything that was inside of him screamed that his Third was wrong, wrong wrong _wrong_.

Jack's dead Alpha briefly entertained the thought that things would be much easier on his old friend if perhaps the young Third was right instead of wrong. Wouldn't that be nice?

"_But he's not_," Jack snapped, but then he looked at his Third in sudden, acute fear. It was one thing to silently address the voices that plagued his thoughts, and it was quite another to address them out loud in front of his Third. Paul, however, looked less than upset. He was watching Jack thoughtfully.

"Jack? Talk to me," Paul rumbled again, and the ancient wolf shivered when he added, "Tell me what it's been like for you. I want to know what Jake knows, I want to understand the way he does. Talk to me, brother."

Unable to refuse, Jack began to speak, and in speaking, waited for the moment when his Third's eyes filled with disgust, and Paul too turned on him. It was nearly dawn when he had finished, and the Third had remained silent the entire time. When there were no more words to say, Jack bowed his head and waited for the blame to come. The young Alpha had forgiven him, but the forgiveness of one such as this wolf was not so easy. Finally Paul stood up and looked to the northwest, face bleak.

"If a leech had killed Leah, I would have tried to kill it, no matter who it used to be," the Third said honestly. "And if you had killed Seth, I would have wanted to kill you too."

Jack had known that would be the case, and he nodded while simultaneously rising to his own feet.

"But if it had been Cassie that was turned…shit, Jack. I'd go through hell and back for her, and to have anyone hurt her…" Paul grimaced and shook his head. "What you did to them was terrible, Jack. But what they did to you was terrible too. You know that, right? That what they did to you, was wrong? The blame goes both ways."

The ancient wolf thought about this, and then shook his head. "I had lived longer than any of those pups. I knew better what it was I did, and I still chose to protect my lover anyways. I allowed her too close to our people, and I made a mistake when I tried to keep my Pack away from her. The blame may go both ways, but the weight of it is mine and mine alone. I was the Qa'al. I knew better and I did it anyways."

Paul grew quiet at that, and then he gave Jack a questioning look. "Was she worth it? Would Tuktukadi have been worth it, if she had survived? Would you have been happy with her?"

Jack couldn't answer that question easily, but he tried. "I think that I would have been happier than I was without her, brother. But as for if she was worth it, my heart says yes, has said yes over these last five centuries. I loved her very much, Third."

"But what about your head, Jack?" Paul asked quietly, and the ancient wolf smiled slightly, eyes drifting to the northeast as well.

"My head is busy speaking of other things," Jack murmured, hunkering down in place, knowing that it would make his Third appear all the more impressive in size and strength. Touching his hand to the dirt beneath him, Jack's smile slid away. "My head says that the last time I saw her, her back was turned to me."

It was a truth that he had never spoken aloud, and it was a painful one to speak. But then his Packmate gripped his shoulder and said softly, "You can leave, Jack, if this will be difficult for you."

"I will stay," Jack decided, his eyes half closed as the two new wolves stepped out of the clearing. "Although you are stronger than both of them, Tlokwali Qa'al," the ancient wolf said in a clear voice that carried easily to the strange wolves. It was a declaration of Paul's rank so that the Third would not have to, and a challenge all the same. This was their Alpha's territory, and they both would defend it from these strangers.

The first one approached them as a human, shorter and more compact like Jack was, his age showing in his eyes, if not his face. The second was still in wolf form, his lanky black body tall at the shoulders and lean, very much like Jack's two youngest Packmates. The black wolf bristled, growling at Jack's comment as if it were an insult, and Jack raised his eyebrow. Jack didn't need to step forward away from his Third to phase, he simply let the change roll down through his body, cracking and realigning bones and sinew until he lay stretched out at Paul's feet, lazy and relaxed.

If the pup wanted to bristle, he was welcome to, but Jack didn't need to puff himself up to make his Qa'al look better.

The pup wondered if the brindled wolf wanted the rest of his nose bitten off where someone had started already?

Jack simply let his tongue roll out in a wolfish smirk. The pup was welcome to try.

Paul wasn't particularly good at body language, but he could see the black wolf getting more and more riled up and he could see Jack relaxing more fully into the role of being less than intimidated, and so the Third glanced down at his Packmate. Jack snapped his jaws in the air, and then laid back his ears aggressively at the pair, showing his Third that in doing so, he was able to make the stronger of the two intruders, the human one, stiffen.

"Jack, enough," Paul ordered, and Jack placed his head on the ground, watching the black wolf silently. The black wolf didn't like being stared at by this one, and was angry that Jack felt he was the stronger of the two.

Jack said nothing, as his Qa'al had commanded him, but if he were to have said something, he was sure it would have been quite over the pup's head. Perhaps in a few hundred years the pup would grow into his fur and be worth speaking to.

With a snarl, the black wolf began creeping forward, teeth bared angrily.

"Leave that one alone, brother," the older wolf in human form said sharply to his Packmate, shifting sideways so that he was between the black wolf and Jack. Courtesy dictated that this one should be giving Paul his complete attention, but his eyes were flickering between Jack and Paul quickly. "The kadidu can kill you faster than I can protect you, Matthew."

The black wolf snarled again, and Paul bared his own teeth. "Call my Packmate that again, and I'll let Jack put your pup in his place," Paul growled. "You smell like the Juneau Alpha, and I've seen the wolf you brought with you. Who are you and what do you want?"

The other wolf eyed Paul briefly, then shifted more fully between his Packmate and the La Push pair. "I am Tátil, the Juneau Beta, and I will talk with your Beta or your Alpha only, wolf," Tátil said in his own, equally hardened tone.

"You'll talk to me, or you'll get run out of here," Paul snapped. "Your Pack caused us a delay that nearly cost us a Packmate, and we lost two of our tribe that could have been saved with greater numbers. Say your piece to me, and count yourself lucky when you leave."

Tátil frowned at that, but when he made to open his mouth, Paul took a threatening step forward. The Third had no interest in placating these wolves today, and Jack rose to his feet, staying at Paul's hip. The Juneau Beta's frown deepened and then he nodded.

"Give your Alpha a message from mine then, wolf," Tátil said stiffly. "We have been made aware of the…_trouble_ our interference caused your Pack, and my Alpha and his mate would like to address it. If your Alpha is willing to talk of a treaty between our Packs, then my Alpha is willing. He is willing to meet you halfway between our territories to speak of it." Tátil's eyes flickered to Jack, and then he pursed his lips uncertainly. "My Alpha did not know that the ka—that _this one_ was in your Pack. That may change things."

"Then get out of here," Paul snarled, stepping forward again. "And be thankful I didn't rip out your throats over your Pack's stupidity. You assholes cost me two friends, and almost cost us a Beta as well."

The Juneau wolves went still at that, and then Jack stiffened, his hackles raised as he stepped in front of Paul and over to his Third's other side. Tátil seemed very unhappy at that, and then he pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket, playing with it between his fingertips momentarily. Finally he stepped forward and handed it to Paul, the black wolf as tight to Tátil's heels as Jack was to Paul's. If this became violent, there would be a four wolf dogpile from the very start, and the black wolf was snarling again, warningly. Jack wrinkled back hip lips, showing sharp white teeth, and Paul stepped in front of Jack deliberately, pushing him back as Paul accepted the piece of paper.

Quicker than they could blink, there was a solid twenty feet between the two pairs of wolves again.

"That's my Alpha's phone number," Tátil said, keeping a hand on the black wolf's ruff. "He will speak to your Alpha over this matter alone. As a show of faith, I'm supposed to tell you that we scented the Cold One that came through your territory, but we were unable to catch it. It seems particularly good at staying just within the borders of Calgary's territory, and we will not follow it there. It knows our ways far too well. We…we are sorry for your losses, brother." And with that, the Juneau wolf was gone, the pup a shadow at his heels.

Paul's fingers crushed the phone number into a wad before he grunted and smoothed it back out again. "I don't like them," he decided. "I don't trust them." Jack whined as he laid down at Paul's feet, leaning into his Packmate's legs as Paul folded the phone number neatly and stuck it into a pocket.

The ancient wolf was wondering if there was someone that _he_ shouldn't be trusting as well.


	18. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Thanks as always to my reviewers: _laurazuleta18, lilred-07, Maryluny, Ms(dot)Persephone, scrapalicious, Gryffindor Gurl2, Jessica1018, moani-sama, Britt01, MargotTenser, cylobaby, KerryH, dana-shardae, mcc3654, PumpkinSpiceLatte, t(dot)bairdy, hevenlyviki, roogaroo, hilja, WorldsAngel, MadToTheBone1, EaSofie, Aleena Kiwiana, Buffyk0604, The all mighty and powerfulM, chicadee74, TheNotoriousLIP, QahlanKwaiya, 82c10akaLynn, _and_ hefors_! The feedback is greatly enjoyed and appreciated! The two poems read by Renesmee in this chapter can be found at www(dot)firstpeople(dot)us/FP-Html-Wisdom/poemsidx(dot)html (Authors are unknown). A list of my Quileute research material will be made available at the end of the story, but I recommend checking out www(dot)Quileute Nation(dot)org if you're interested. Oh, and fair warning. A child imprint conversation will make some of you _very_ uncomfortable this chapter. Later gators!

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Sixteen

_**The Americas, 1543 AD**_

_"Ten years, my dearly departed ratly captain. Ten years to explore this grand new world, and I believe that I have seen all there is to see."_

_As the vampire perched on one of a countless number of trees, inside one of a countless number of forests, Ricardo the Unfortunate Explorer sighed heavily, speaking to the open air. "And what a boring, pointless ten years those have been. You are lucky, old friend, to only have lasted a few months into our travels. But I, I have lasted, as I have always lasted, and in lasting have learned that this is pure torture. What kind of being can stand a life of nothing but insects chirping and softly blowing breezes? I declare this world pointless and in need of some livening. What do you say, my captain? Shall we find somewhere else to exist?"_

_Ricardo listened, but all he heard was peacefulness and serenity, and most terribly, not even a tiny squeak on the wind. Groaning, Ricardo flopped upon his back, limbs dangling from the limb, glorious in his ingloriousness. _

_"If I were a tree, I would have felled myself years ago," Ricardo told the redwood, massive as it loomed over the landscape. "But I am merely a man, and a killer, and a bored one at that. I wish to drink of something that doesn't taste of fur and smell of pinecones, although I wish to be drank of even more, even at the fear of being furred and pineconed myself. The women in this land are hearty, dear captain, but they are still women. Too bad there is only one of them for every thousand of me."_

_The tree said nothing as trees were wont to do, and Ricardo groaned even more loudly. "A voice, a voice, if even that of my enemy. I'm going mad, and it is never a good thing for a bad man to go mad. It would be a terrible thing for in my madness to become good and wholesome inadvertently. Perhaps I should go fish out my old companion? And then sink him back in again after a brief conversation? If I am lonely talking to the land, it is possible that he might be lonely talking to the sea."_

_Realizing that the captain would not speak, would not squeak, would nary make a peep, Ricardo the Unfortunate Explorer once more sighed dramatically and rolled off of the limb. It was a very grand and beautiful plummet to the ground, one that reminded Ricardo of flying, at least until he hit the forest floor with a great cracking of earth and stone. Startled, a flock of blackbirds took flight at the noise, their wings beating the air like tiny drums._

_"You are music to dead ears, oh avian friends," Ricardo promised them as he lay sprawled in the dirt and loam. "Shall we dance again tomorrow? Or are your dance cards full and your time previously accounted for?"_

_Silence. _

_More silence._

_Silence silence evermore._

_"When the lady turns you down, it is best to simply find another," Ricardo murmured quietly to the sky. "Would anyone else like to dance? No one? Then I shall continue on, in my unfortunate attempts to find something that better suits me."_

_Rising to his feet and dusting off his not quite as finery, Ricardo the Unfortunate Explorer decided to simply become Ricardo the Unfortunate Wanderer. After all, there were only so many shrubs and boulders and greens that one could explore before they began to sprout root themselves. So Ricardo wandered, and in his wandering he repeatedly came across the many indigenous peoples that filled this world. Some of them seemed to find his countenance frightening, and would try to drive him off with cries and sticks and stones. Some however seemed enchanted by his pale, perfectly created features, and would invite him to their fires and allow him to indulge in their company. _

_Ricardo had been living mostly off of the blood of forest creatures these last ten years, not out of choice but out of necessity. He supposed he could feed through these people as easily as his creation had once fed through a city, but Ricardo knew that a little restraint now would yield higher numbers of these humans to feed upon later. And the truth of the matter was that even though Ricardo did not speak the tongues of these tanned skinned peoples, he was drawn to their companionship. _

_The lonely stayed lonely if they ate everyone that they tried to befriend, so Ricardo attempted to exist in a splendidly dull state of culinary moderation. _

_On one such night of restrain and moderation, Ricardo joined the campfires of a village of short, stocky fishermen. The vampire had wandered to the west and had the unfortunate luck to meet an ocean that would not give way to the vampire's feet. So he had followed the coastline, and as such had found many of these peoples, their words foreign in his ears. Some offered him food and drink, and Ricardo was far too mannered to turn them down, and he chatted among them contentedly, knowing that their dark eyes were filled with confusion as he told them all about his wanderings, and the passing of dear friends, and the betrayal of a King. They grinned and laughed when he acted out his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and it amused Ricardo to think that they thought him silly and strange. One of the younger women of the tribe came and sat near his feet, smiling at him boldly, and the intoxicating scent of the blood pumping through her veins aroused Ricardo in a variety of interesting and expressive ways. _

_The smell would have been so much better if the man in the shadows, the one that never seemed to be noticed by the others, didn't reek so strongly, even if the man was mostly standing downwind. _

_Ricardo ignored him, knowing that every society had their degenerates and their unkempt ones, although this scent was particularly bad to the vampire. It was as if someone had washed a stray dog down with pungent bilge water and left it drying in a small room. The man was circling the grouping, just outside of the firelight, and more than once he passed directly behind Ricardo. _

_The vampire had lived for over five hundred years, and he knew that the only threats to his kind worth mentioning were his own kin. All other threats had always been collectively taken care of. If their coven leaders were happy, if the Volturi were happy, one was safe. As Ricardo felt an instinctive uneasiness wash through his body, he experimentally wrapped his arm around the tribal girl near him and pulled her closer to his side. When Ricardo teasingly spoke in her ear and put his face near her neck, the man behind him, the one that didn't smell like a man at all, went very still. Eyes bore into him with silent fury. _

_A shiver of pleasure went through the unfortunate wanderer. This man _knew_ what he was._

_Twisting in place, Ricardo turned and met the eyes of the man in the darkness. "Well if you're going to stare, old boy, you might as well do it where it's more comfortable," the vampire said cheerfully. No one understood what he said, but the tribe seemed to realize that he was speaking to someone outside the firelight. Several braves rose and called out challengingly to the darkness, and after a moment's hesitation, the man that smelled so terribly stepped into the light. _

_The wind brought his scent more fully into Ricardo's nostrils and the vampire almost gagged. Dressed in buskin leggings and a breechclout of simple make, this one looked just as any other brave in these coastal tribes ever did, with the exception that he wore none of the necklaces or jewelry that seemed to mark prestige in this particular grouping of people. Only a small pouch was tied to his waist, and a broken off antler knife hung ready to be used at his hip. He was not nearly as unkempt as his scent would suggest, his hands and face cleaned of dirt. But his dark hair had been cut short, as only the children in the village seemed to have, and over his shoulders and back and curling around his sides was the most awful scarring that Ricardo had ever seen. As if a beast had mauled him mercilessly, and he had lived to tell the tale of it. This one was thin, as if he hadn't eaten in a long time, even though food seemed plentiful in this place. And unlike the village, this one's eyes were full of hatred. Hatred directed Ricardo's way._

_There were whispers that went through the tribe, whispers of the word "Tlokwali". The man spoke to them, a short clipped phrase, and the girl at Ricardo's side went still, her pulse skyrocketing in fear. She tried to move, but Ricardo's arm stayed draped over her shoulder, locking her to his side. Across the fire, the men had risen in alarm, but it was only this one man that Ricardo was paying attention to. The village grew deathly quiet, mute with horror and obviously believing whatever it was that this man had said. _

_"Now now, that's not very nice of you," Ricardo chuckled, adjusting his cap on his head. "And here I was behaving myself so well, too."_

_Plain brown eyes narrowed and the man glanced at the arm that Ricardo had around the girl. Sighing, the vampire realized that his pleasant evening of company was quickly going downhill. Forcibly keeping his smile, he tilted his head respectfully at the man and released the girl. With a gasp of fear she scrambled away from him and was quickly lost among the frightened men and women behind the side of the fire opposite of Ricardo. The vampire held up his hands innocently._

_"See? No one got eaten. So why don't you put those nasty looks away and let me get back to my evening," Ricardo suggested cheerfully. "I won't even kill you for ruining my fun, not now anyways. Sound good?"_

_The man frowned, seeming confused that Ricardo had let the girl go, and then he spoke in a harsh voice, "Kíka, hókwať."_

_Ricardo continued relaxing in place, but his eyes narrowed slightly. "Sorry, my good man, I'm not sure exactly what that meant. But I'm awfully comfortable, so why don't you take a seat or continue on your way?"_

_Brown eyes hardened, and Ricardo saw the man was beginning to tremble as he shifted sideways and forward, repeating in a dangerous snarl, "__**Kíka**__, hókwať." The vampire realized that the man was trying to get himself closer to the people, as if to protect them, and he seemed to understand that Ricardo was dangerous. Suddenly the vampire wondered just what this bad smelling man could do about it if Ricardo felt like ending this conversation right then and there?_

_Stretching casually, Ricardo rose to his feet and flashed the man a feral fang-filled smirk. "How about I just say __**no**__, and we'll go from there?"_

_To be honest, five hundred years of existence had not prepared Ricardo for what would happen next. The trembling became one violent jerk, and as if shaking dust out of a coat, something shook this man and a wolf came out instead._

_It was the biggest damn wolf Ricardo had ever seen. _

_"Well, well, that was pretty damn impress—Ahh! Son of a—!"_

_The wolf had lunged at him with a speed that Ricardo had never seen before in anything but his own kind, and several centuries of indulgence nearly cost him his life then and there. Ricardo let out a less than manly yelp of surprise, ducking out of the way right as jaws snapped past his head, slicing his hat. The wolf skidded into the fire, causing the tribal villagers to shriek and dart backwards, burning logs going flying as the wolf twisted and snarled furiously. _

_"What the hell was that for?" Ricardo growled, shaking off his now torn hat and adjusting it back on his head. "A man can't exactly skip back to England to replace these, you know. I take it back, I'll just kill you now."_

_The wolf let out a bellow of rage, but as Ricardo shifted to give them more room to fight, the wolf stayed in its place, burning embers scattered on the ground behind its feet as the tribe went running in fear the other way. This wolf…man…thing was keeping himself between Ricardo and the humans, and he was snarling terribly, but he wasn't moving. The wolf was protecting them from Ricardo and possible death by vampire draining._

_"That's actually very thoughtful of you," Ricardo decided, stuffing his thumbs into his belt. "If you hadn't killed my hat, I might be inclined to be the better man about all of this and look the other way."_

_The wolf's snarling lowered in tone, and its eyes once again looked confused. _

_Ricardo leaned his head from side to side, cracking the bones pleasantly, amused at how the massive wolf's gaze followed every movement. "You know, this is one of those times when it would be nice if everyone spoke the same language. It's been an awfully long time since I killed anyone that wasn't small and squishy and flailing in terror, or flailing in other ways, and it would be nice to at least know your name. I, my good wolf man, am Ricardo the Unfortunate Wanderer, previously known as Ricardo the Unfortunate Explorer, previously known as…well, those were better times better not mentioned now. It wouldn't do to make me all misty eyed when I'm about to exert my masculine prowess and highly impressive fighting skills upon you."_

_The wolf snarled louder, and Ricardo grinned bowing deeply. "Ahh, good. You are Snarl, and I am Ricardo. It is very pleasing to make your acquaintance." The vampire was still grinning when he lunged at the wolf, his cap angled jauntily and his eyes sparkling at the fun of it all._

_And thus started the most vicious and violent fight of Ricardo's life. The wolf, Snarl, seemed built for fighting vampires, his teeth sharp enough to pierce vampire skin and his bones strong enough to withstand vampire blows. The wolf seemed particularly intent on keeping Ricardo's fangs from touching it, so Ricardo did his best to try and get those fangs into the wolf's tough skin. Snarl wasn't interested in that, though, and Ricardo wasn't particularly interested in being dismembered anytime soon, as the wolf seemed determined to do. Snarl was the better fighter, Ricardo figured that out after a couple hours and a swathe of downed vegetation later, but Ricardo was dead and tiredness wouldn't sink into his bones and muscles as fast as it would for this wolf. Plus the wolf had been starving, a better glance at its body made it clear that it hadn't eaten in far too long. They were equally advantaged, or perhaps equally disadvantaged, and as such, Ricardo had himself one hell of a good time. _

_There was nothing like the prospect of being eaten to liven up one's night._

_As they fought, Ricardo talked, and as Ricardo talked, Snarl snarled, and as the sun began to rise in the sky and the wolf started to slow, Ricardo made sure to take advantage of it when he could for chances to rest. The exertion was making Ricardo thirsty, but the vampire's annoyance had long since been replaced by sheer pleasure. Here was not only someone to keep him company, here was someone that made that company more interesting because that someone wanted to kill him. _

_Ricardo the Less Unfortunate Wanderer didn't want to die, but he certainly didn't mind it if this wolf wanted to continue to play. _

_For hours they fought, the vampire losing several parts that he was trying to keep track of so that they could be put back on again later, and the wolf growing more and more exhausted. Finally mid-snarl, Snarl backed off and stood panting. Concern was beginning to show in the wolf's eyes. It was questioning if it was going to be able to win or not. His brindled sides were dripping with sweat, now dark brown and gleaming. His muzzle dripped white foam and blood and his tail drooped tiredly._

_"You know, Snarl," Ricardo said cheerfully as he tried to put his left thumb back on his hand. "You remind me of one of those African wild dogs, jackals, all brindled and hungry and fighting. And Jack seems like a better name than Snarl, after all, you are a man. Or Tlokwali, whatever everyone was talking about back there."_

_The wolf went still and then with a shudder it rolled back into human form. He stood naked and angry and exhausted in front of Ricardo, growling out something that Ricardo again didn't understand. But he was eyeing the vampire in confusion._

_"Don't know what to make of me, do you?" Ricardo chuckled in amusement, pressing on his ear harder as it refused to heal back quickly. "But then again, I'm not the one that turns into a giant wolf and stands around naked. Not that I'm complaining, fur is a good look for some, and you pull it off well. I'm more of a silks and brocades type of man, but I'm working on downsizing my tastes to the more mundane. Damn, this ear just won't stick." He tried hitting the side of his head to aid in the sticking, and when that didn't work, the vampire leaned against the closest tree, ear pressed between the bark and his head. Letting his weight do the hard part, Ricardo gave the other man a grin._

_The wolf was watching him quizzically, and Ricardo smirked and pointed to his ear. "Your fault, Jack." Shifting made ear drop to the ground and then Ricardo sighed, bending over to pick it off the dirt. "Figures. Good thing us vampires are a cut above the rest, wolf, or I might actually lose an—"_

_Ricardo had taken his eyes off of the wolf. He shouldn't have done that._

_The wolf had him pinned to the tree by the throat and the chest, hand ready to tear Ricardo apart, and as the hand crushed down to do just that, Ricardo shrugged and gave the wolf true and friendly smile. "Well, at least it was fun, Jack." And then the wolf tore his head from his shoulders._

_When a vampire is beheaded, it doesn't kill them. It just makes them black out for a while, long enough for someone to set them on fire and burn them into a real death. And it hurts. A LOT. Ricardo was thinking just that as he came back to, his head once more connected to his body and his body rolled so that it was pressed up against the tree. The wolf had put his ear back on. That had been kind of him. _

_With a groan Ricardo rolled over and saw the wolf a few dozen feet away, resting on the grass. He looked miserable, his nose resting upon his paws, his body exhausted and slumped, his eyes clouded over as he stared at nothing at all. Ricardo tried to get up but not much below his ribcage worked right now. The vampire wouldn't be walking anytime soon. He needed blood to heal and he doubted someone who had put this much effort into killing him would do such a thing. _

_It would take years for them to know each other's languages enough for Ricardo to ask the reasoning behind the act of mercy, and years more for Jack to admit that he had started tearing the vampire apart, but his resolve had shattered. The wolf had ended up weeping brokenly as he only saw his dead lover before him, and Jack had wondered in horror if she had lived through the same. Confused and desperate, Jack had pieced Ricardo back together again and had kept his vigil, questioning if there was any part of his old self that at this point he hadn't betrayed._

_Ricardo didn't know this, he just knew that it was a pleasant thing to not be dead, and the wolf looked awfully lonely. So the vampire crawled over to the wolf that had nearly killed him, and bravely put his shoulders to the wolf's side. _

_"How about this, Jackie boy?" the vampire suggested thoughtfully. "You've got your places to be and I have mine, but you seem like a decent enough fellow, and you did remember my ear. Why don't we run the same way for a while and see how that goes? No more trying to kill each other in the meantime." The wolf flinched at the cold flesh against his own, but he didn't pull away. Adjusting what was left of his cap on his newly attached head, Ricardo settled down and made himself comfortable, and he started talking. This would be a long healing, but it wasn't like Ricardo had anything better to do, and they might as well get to know each other a little better. _

_Two days later, when the wolf finally leaned into him ever so slightly, the vampire smiled. _

* * *

The Cold One was gone.

Jack had known this would happen, had known it for centuries, had been warned by the Cold One itself not that long ago. Still it was with a certain amount of pain that Jack returned home to find a note taped on the door.

It had read: "_Been eating people. Done some other shit you'll like even less. It was a good run, wolf_."

Short, succinct, to the point. There had been lines between them that couldn't be crossed, not and still remain in the friendship that they had maintained for so long. Jack couldn't really say he was surprised that the Cold One had been unable to maintain his diet of animal blood, but to take a human life was very high on the list of what Jack would never tolerate from his friend. That fact that Rico felt guilty enough to admit to doing worse than killing a human made Jack grow cold. The Cold One was clever and dangerous. That could mean a lot of things.

Standing by himself in front of the trailer door, the ancient wolf closed his eyes and tried to keep his emotions in check. It was one thing to mourn the loss of brother, of a way of life, of a lover, or of a Packmate. It was entirely another to allow oneself to mourn a Cold One. But this Cold One had been good to him, and it was a hard thing to lose a friend, even when they had been destined to be one another's enemy. Grateful that no one was watching, Jack felt the pain wash over him, leaving his limbs limp and his fingers curling into his palms. He was alone again. There was no Cold One stench to burn his nostrils. There was no chuckling laughter to cover introspective eyes. If they met again, there would be another fight between them, and they were more evenly matched than ever. Jack would soon have to kill someone else, and it was his distaste for death that pressed even heavier on his shoulders than the loneliness.

It had been a very long time since the former Third had felt this old.

The good thing about being isolated from one's Pack is that one can hurt in relative peace, so Jack went and sat on the fence row for a while, in the place that Rico had always gravitated to. Briefly Jack entertained the idea of how things could have been different if he had never gone out into the woods that day, so many centuries ago, and had never pleaded with the spirits to allow him to become Tlokwali. He would have lived a short life, probably no more than three or four decades, and he would have spent his days hunting and fishing and raising the children some nameless, faceless woman would have given him. He would have sat at the fires of his people and watched the Tlokwali move about the tribe, wondering what that life could have been with them. Then he would have died, and his spirit would have moved on to the spirit world, and he would have been at peace. Perhaps it was the spirit of the self he could have been that always whispered in his mind so constantly. Maybe it was a thousand spirits, all the selves that he had never been, all condemning the decisions that this one single self had made.

The dead Alpha said nothing, understanding Jack's loss, but deeper still a nearly dead wolf ignored the passing of one that could never have become a Packmate. To it, having run with that one had always been a mistake, if a more pleasant mistake than the others its human had taken to making.

Jack rubbed his face wearily. How many times was a man allowed to make mistakes before there was no unmaking them? Strange how Jack wanted to condemn the Cold One for what it had done, but instead the ancient wolf simply balanced on the wooden railing and listened to the wind slipping through the trees. There would be worry later, worry about that second part the Cold One had admitted to, but right now there was no condemnation in his heart. Instead there was just a deep sadness and an understanding that the wolf and the Cold One would journey together no more.

"It was a good run, Cold One," Jack said softly to the wind. "Go with peace."

* * *

"Hold still."

The blonde imprint on the kitchen counter snickered as her wolf frowned and leaned in closer, his caramel colored eyes narrowing in focus as the Third took his imprint's chin in his large hand. "Hold _still_, Cass. When you laugh it makes you move."

Cassie grinned up at Paul and bit her lower lip, her knees tightening on his hips as he shifted his weight into the cabinets beneath her. The huge wolf winked at her and then went back to focusing on his task. So far he had managed to balance two chocolate chips on the tip of her nose, but the third chip was proving more difficult. Paul settled for placing it closer to the bridge of her nose and then he released her chin. "There. Now don't move."

"Paul? Why are we doing this?" Cassie asked curiously, her eyes crossing as she tried to see the chips on her nose. "Not that I mind if you want to put chocolate all over me, but I can think of plenty of better places than this."

"I like your nose, Cass," Paul chuckled, bending down and pressing a kiss to her shoulder. She was wearing one of his sweatshirts, and the oversized garment left most of her shoulders bared. "Plus, I'm supposed to be thinking of trust exercises for Jake, and then it occurred to me that maybe the wolves and imprints need some trust exercises too."

The imprint went more cross eyed as she stared at the chips. "How is torturing me with chocolate supposed to build trust?"

"It's not, I just think you look cute with chips on your nose," he rumbled against her neck, causing Cassie to snigger and lose two of her chips. Paul caught them before they hit the counter, and with a sexy grin he popped both into his mouth. Cassie made a sad little sound at being denied her fair share, and as she was focusing on withholding the remaining chip by way of exceptional nasal balance, her face scrunched up in concentration, Paul pulled something out of his back pocket. He covered her hand with his larger one and he slipped the something onto her finger next to her rubber band, a rubber band that was worn and about to break any day now.

Cassie glanced down, and then her eyes softened as she saw the ring he had given her. "Oh Paul…we can't afford that," she whispered. "It's beautiful, but I don't need it."

"I didn't pay very much for it," he admitted gruffly, twisting the slender golden band around her finger so that he could see the tiny diamond better. "I know it's small, but the jeweler said we could always upgrade it later." He was embarrassed, Cassie could see it in his eyes, so she leaned in and kissed him. The chip managed to hang on until Paul threaded his fingers into her hair, tilting her head back as he deepened the kiss. Finally he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.

"I talked to Jake," Paul rumbled. "If you still want to marry me, we can have Billy do it. The Cullens have someone who can make fake identification documents, so we won't have to deal with the fact you're here illegally."

Her eyes flickered sideways in one tiny little motion, but then they were locked on his and Cassie was nodding and smiling. "Of course I still want to marry you, Paul."

Paul paid a lot closer attention these days than he used to.

"Cass?" the Third asked softly. "Whatever you aren't saying, you can say. Trust, remember? We're all supposed to start trusting each other better. I love you, mama. You can trust me."

Cassie nodded at that, but her eyes softened sadly. "I just…sometimes I look in the mirror, Paul, and I don't even recognize who I see. I'm not who I was when you proposed in Montana, and I'm not even sure who I _want_ to be. Do you really want to marry someone who doesn't know themselves anymore? It's kind of a gamble, Paul, what I'll become, _who_ I'll become. And gambling can be fun, if you're gambling for money or cookies or those cool stuffed animals or fake jewelry in those truck stop grab machines, but gambling on a marriage can be scary."

Paul was quiet for a moment, thinking about what she said, and Cassie could see in his eyes that he was weighing her words. When he tilted his head ever so slightly, she knew his wolf had given his opinion on the matter. Smiling because Paul's wolf let her know it had always enjoyed her unpredictability, Cassie rested her hands on Paul's forearms and waited for him.

The Third finally frowned and stuck his nose on her shoulder again. "I think that people change, Cass," Paul rumbled, "And those changes aren't always for the better. But I think you've changed _me_ for the better, and I love you for that. I'm not always going to do or say the right things, but I'm not going to regret you. I've committed myself to you, Cassie, and even if you don't know yourself right now, I do. You're a fighter, mama, you're a _survivor_, and if I had to make a gamble, I'd bet on you."

Cassie's eyes softened even further, and she wrapped her arms around Paul's neck. "I love you, too," she whispered, tugging his head back down to hers.

"And _I_ love you, Paul," someone sing-songed from the doorway teasingly. "Considering the last person to put me on my ass was your imprint, I'd bet on her too."

Paul groaned and turned his head to glare at the intruder. "Jake? I'm kind of in the middle of something here." Which he had been. Paul's hands had just slid beneath his imprint's thighs, ready to hoist her up and drag her back to bed.

Jake was poking his head into the cabin, his eyes sparkling as he glanced at the pair, and with a grunt of annoyance, Paul set his imprint back down. Cassie beamed at the Alpha and waggled the fingers on her left hand. "Hey Jake? Paul got me something. I was perfectly content with my rubber band, but he felt the need to add some bling."

The Alpha ambled across the cabin, a three-ring binder tucked under his arm, and he went over to the blonde on the counter, smirking at Paul as the Third was forced to give way. Slightly. Jake picked up Cassie's hand and then grinned. "Very cool, very cool. At least you two are doing this the fun way, because we get to throw a party and everything. Jared and Kim eloped to Seattle last night. He called me an hour ago."

Paul looked at Jake, startled at the information, and then he grunted unhappily. "Jared didn't tell me."

"Jared's upset right now, Paul," Jake said simply. "Shane's death really shook him up. He's tightening down on the people around him that matter, keeping them as close as he can. But don't get pissed, not even Brady was there, and you know you rank directly after him. The pup got his feelings hurt over it, and I think Jared's feeling guilty over both of you not knowing. His mother's giving him hell, so you might want to cut him a break."

"I thought Kim wanted a big wedding," Paul murmured, and Jake shrugged.

"Apparently she wanted Jared to be happy even more," the Alpha murmured, wrapping his arm around Cassie's waist and giving her a wink as he shifted her over to the side, closer to the fridge. Paul, being a faithful and trusting wolf, didn't say anything as Jake set down his three-ring binder on the cleared area, at least until it became clear that the Alpha and the happily snuggling imprint weren't letting go of each other anytime soon.

"Hands off my mate," Paul growled, and Jake shot Paul a grin before planting a quick but very thorough kiss right on Cassie's lips.

The tiny imprint blinked in surprise and then grinned. "Oh dear. Paul, I think Jake's in love with me. Don't worry, I'm not in love with him, but we'll either have to decide to accommodate his needs or let him down easy and help him through his suffering. Since both could involve copious amounts of chocolate ice cream, I'll let you decide this one."

"_Hands off my mate_," Paul repeated in a lower, more dangerous growl, and the Alpha snickered.

"Helping him through his suffering it is then," Cassie nodded sagely, reaching into the freezer next to her and pulling out a half full container. The utensil drawer was beneath her knees, so Cassie was happily rooting around for a spoon when Jake removed both the container and utensil from her hands.

"Maybe if you stopped eating junk food you wouldn't always be sick, Cass," Jake told her, ignoring her growling at him in Russian as he began in on the frozen treat. "Okay, Paul you have to see this shi—ahh, sorry Cass. You just have to see this."

Paul ignored the binder and glared at Jake. "We were actually having a conversation, Jake. Come back later, or go bother Seth."

"I can't," the Alpha mumbled around his mouthful of ice cream, gesturing to the binder with his elbow. "And read it."

The Third grunted in annoyance and then leaned over the binder, opening it and glancing at the first page absently. "Can't _why_, exactly?" Paul asked, twisting the binder so that Cassie could read it too.

"Because someone is _giggling_ in his bedroom," Jake chuckled. "Someone that has orange hair and nice parts and will probably be making more noises than just giggling if Seth has his way anytime soon. Apparently she's still angry he won't tell her anything that happened, and he's trying to win her over with puppy dog eyes and hard candy. You might want to get laid right now, Paul, but Seth just had a "near death experience". I'm pretty sure he wants to get laid more, and I'm _not_ getting in the middle of that shit."

Paul had obviously stopped listening halfway through because he cursed and then bent over, rifling through the binder more quickly. "Jake? What the _hell_?"

"Impressive, isn't it?" The Alpha replied drolly, fending off Cassie's attempts to steal his spoon. "Just when you think that you're doing a good job protecting your reservation, a four year old comes up with a schematic on how to kill every one of us. But see? Ness is too nice to say kill, so she wrote a sad face on all of the wolves that have been 'rendered immobile'. Sweet, huh? I need you to go over that with a fine toothed comb and make up a new patrol system entirely."

"Paul?" Cassie asked curiously. "Is this what I think it is?" The imprint pointed to a list, and Paul let out a string of curses that made Cassie wrinkle her nose and Jake smirk.

"She wrote down our strengths and weaknesses, Jake," Paul groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Every single one of us, based on what you and Seth and any of the rest of us have said. Who's faster, who's stronger, who's better at tactics, who's got the better nose…she _ranked_ us in capability."

The Alpha handed the ice cream back to the imprint and then wandered over to the front door, which was still propped open. Jake braced his arms on either side of the doorway and gazed out at the muddy drive. "I'm not sure whether to be impressed at her memory and her intuitiveness or to be terrified. Notice she put Seth as more capable as me?"

"Only by a few decimals on her point system, Jake," Cassie chirped up, pulling the binder across her lap so that she could read it easier. "And that was only on the first list, the one that factored in strategic…Paul? I'm not used to reading this word in English."

The Third didn't even need to uncover his face. "Strategic residence proximity to the both central and peripheral weaknesses in the patrol patterns."

"Because of where he lives, Seth is most likely to save our asses," Jake rumbled. "At least, if you waited until everyone was in their homes."

Paul leaned back against the counter, looking sick. "Where was this?"

"In Bella and Edward's cottage, has been since last summer, although she's adjusted it several times in regards to changes in our patrols since then," Jake said quietly. "It was right out in the open. All the binders lined up in a row on the shelving in her room, labeled and everything. That's where Nessie keeps all of her _thoughts_ when she's done thinking about them. I'm sure if you wanted the cure for the common cold or the way to stop world hunger, she's got those in there too."

Cassie slid off the counter and walked over to Jake, the binder still in her arms as she read. "Jake? Are you saying that the vampire…?"

The Alpha sighed and closed his eyes. "Page sixty-three. Shane and Casey are dead because of page sixty-three."

The cabin was quiet as the they processed that, and Cassie made a hurt noise in her throat. She had liked Casey but she had really liked Shane.

"What did the leeches say?" Paul asked gruffly, running his hand through his short hair.

"That they're sorry," Jake snorted. "That they've never scented him that close by, and Alice has been watching him like a hawk, but they spend weeks at a time in the coven main house, so it's possible the bastard got into the cottage and left quickly enough to not have his scent linger for too long. They are upset he slipped through their defenses, and it freaked Bells out that he was in Ness's room. That they never meant to hurt the Pack and that they'll do everything they can to try and make it up to us. Everything but tell me what Neel's trying to get from them, that is. To quote Carlisle, they respect us deeply, but like us, they need to take care of their own. I told Carlisle to fuck off, and it didn't even hurt the good doctor's feelings."

The imprint closed her eyes and rocked back on her heels, folding the binder to her chest. Paul had come up behind her but she didn't seem to see him. Instead her eyes were gleaming as she opened them and looked up at the Alpha. "Jake? Does she know?"

"No, and as far as I'm concerned, she's never going to," the Alpha growled. "That little girl can't handle killing a bunny. How the hell do you think she's going to handle finding out that something she thought up got two people killed and almost a third? No, when it comes down to it, Nessie messed up, but she's a little kid that didn't know any better. She didn't actually kill Shane or Casey, and she never needs to think that she did. Ness doesn't need to know. It'll break her."

The Alpha paused, and then he looked at Cassie with a considering expression. "Of course, I suppose I should talk to you about what Ness gets to know, shouldn't I?"

Cassie tipped her head to the side in confusion. The Alpha smiled slightly. "You're the ranking imprint, Cassie, since Samantha's staying out of the mix. My imprint has enough to deal with right now, and she's having too much trouble with her phasing to focus on what's happening to the imprints. You're the next highest ranked imprint and Nessie is the lowest. What do you think? Do I tell a four year old that she got some people killed?"

The blonde imprint shook her head and said quietly. "No, Jake, of course you shouldn't. Please don't."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too." Jake nodded in agreement and Cassie patted his arm, as if he had done a good thing. Then Cassie handed Paul the binder and then quietly excused herself. Paul watched her close the bathroom door behind her and then he exhaled.

"She'll spend the rest of the day pretending like she didn't need to go hide in there over this," Paul said quietly in Quileute. "She thinks about her father and that dickhead she shot constantly, but it's like pulling teeth to get it out of her. I'm thinking about trying to get her to a shrink, or maybe to Cullen. Someone for her to talk to that's not connected to everything."

"Shrinks only work if they know what's actually going on," Jake replied in kind. "And I'm not sure how much I trust the coven right now."

"Then what am I supposed to do? Watch her tear herself up for the rest of her life?"

Jake sighed and then put a comforting hand on Paul's shoulder. "Just give me some time to think about it, Paul. And give her time too. If Cass was the type to confide and ask you to fix her problems for her, this whole thing never would have happened."

The Third nodded, and it was clear that he was shifting in his head from "worried mate" to "reliable Third". Paul pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Jake. "Are you going to call him? The Juneau Alpha? I figured you would have wanted this to call him already, but after the Ness thing, I get why you were busy."

Jake nodded and then pulled out his cell phone. "Might as well. If we can't trust the allies we've got, we might as well make some new ones we can't trust." The Alpha dialed the phone and then his face grew serious as he stepped out on the porch. Paul could hear a raspy voice answer on the other end.

"It took you long enough, La Push."

Jake smirked at that and then settled down on the front steps, his Third standing protectively behind his shoulder. "Okay, Juneau. Let's talk."

* * *

"Alright honey, take a deep breath."

Renesmee did as she was told, holding her breath for a moment before exhaling heavily. The tall, dark haired doctor in front of her nodded and smiled, placing the stethoscope on the other side of Renesmee's chest. "Good, Nessie. One more time for me, please."

The little girl was in her grandfather's office, perched on top of his desk as Dr. Foster examined her. Misty listened for a moment and then draped her stethoscope over her neck, reaching in one of the deep pockets of her lab coat for a small pen light. Renesmee blinked as her grandfather's protégé peered in both of her pupils, and then she watched the pen as Misty brought it slowly back and forth in front of her eyes.

"Renesmee, I need you to focus on the pen, honey."

"I am, Dr. Foster," Renesmee said politely, and the woman frowned. Renesmee wasn't exactly sure how to explain to the doctor that she could watch the pen, but could also watch her grandfather and Misty and the clouds gathering outside the large glass office windows at the same time. Misty tucked the pen back into her pocket and put warm fingers to Renesmee's neck.

"Does this hurt at all, Nessie?" the young doctor asked, gently probing at the little girl's lymph nodes. Renesmee shook her head, and Misty nodded, pressing harder. "How about this?"

"No, Dr. Foster."

Misty sighed and stepped backwards, glancing over at Carlisle, where the other doctor stood leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. "Okay, you're done, honey," Misty said with a kind smile. "You're fit as a fiddle. My iPod is behind you if you want to listen to something, and the good news is that unlike your grandpa, I rock out to _good_ music."

Renesmee grinned at that, and she obediently when to her grandfather's spinning chair, picking up the iPod. The little girl knew that it was a distraction, and her grandfather whispered under his breath for her to turn the volume up. He and Dr. Foster needed to speak privately. When Renesmee did so, Carlisle tipped his head to indicate he wanted to talk to Misty outside of the office, and he held the door for the tall doctor as she limped into the hallway.

Renesmee tried very hard to be well behaved, but she didn't have to try very hard to be curious. That came quite naturally. So maybe it wasn't as well behaved as she normally was, but Renesmee told herself she would be extra well behaved later, and she spun in the chair to cover the fact that she was lowering the volume of the iPod. But just a little.

"—not sure what to tell you, Carlisle. I would never guess that she's the same child as the one in these test results. Her red blood cell count keeps dropping so low that she should be highly anemic, and her T cell counts are so high that it's like she's fighting one hell of an infection. But she seems perfectly fine, no fever, no nothing. She's exhibiting low level autoimmunity, but it's not high enough to be too concerned about. You said a couple months ago that she was only like this occasionally?"

"Yes, and now it's nearly constant. She usually has rapid growth spurts and then periods of non-growth, with her white cell counts increasing and falling in kind. But for a couple weeks now they've stayed consistently high. She hasn't had a growth spurt for a while."

Renesmee could hear Misty pursing her lips and drumming her fingertips on her hip. "Nessie's physical features aren't standard for someone with progeria, but genetic conditions don't just go away, Carlisle."

"It's not progeria, Misty."

The human wasn't convinced, and it was evident in her voice. "You had it tested?"

"It's _not_ progeria. I'm not asking why you think she's growing rapidly, Dr. Foster," Carlisle replied in a harder tone, one that brooked no nonsense. "I'm asking why a child who seems healthy on the outside is so obviously not on the inside? I've tested her for every infection that I can think of and they all come back negative. Antibiotics don't change her levels, neither do steroids."

"…Carlisle…you're deliberately avoiding the obvious here. Leukemia."

"It's not that either, Misty. My granddaughter doesn't have cancer, I know that for a fact. I just don't know what else it _could_ be..."

Her grandfather sounded so frustrated that Renesmee turned the volume on the iPod back up, wanting to respect his privacy. As she spun in her chair, she could see the dark haired doctor frowning and rubbing her face. It occurred to Renesmee that Dr. Foster looked very tired, but there wasn't a lot of times that the woman didn't look tired. Misty pulled her own high number of hours at the hospital and also covered Renesmee's grandfather's shifts when he was needed elsewhere by the coven. Renesmee spun slower and saw her grandfather lay a comforting hand on the doctor's shoulder, and her curiosity won out again. The little girl turned the volume back down, although she had been enjoying the song that was playing. No one else in her family ever listened to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

"—I know. I'm sorry, Misty, I know you've been under a lot of pressure. Anything you can do to help would be appreciated."

"Of course, Carlisle. You know I adore Nessie. I've got a friend back at Johns Hopkins that I can ask for help. He just finished a clinical pathology specialty, and he's insanely intuitive. I can fax over Nessie's lab work—"

"No, this is a private matter so if you call him, be discreet. This wouldn't be the same friend that keeps emailing the department over residency openings, would it?" her grandfather chuckled, and the doctor flushed.

"Maybe…but it doesn't matter much right now either way—"

When the conversation turned to career options, Renesmee's interest faded away. Instead she listened to AC/DC and spun in her chair and eyed the telephone on her grandfather's desk longingly. She wished that she had someone to call, but she knew her aunts and uncles were busy on coven business right now, and her grandmother and parents were discussing something that had apparently happened with Jake the night before. Something about the Alpha "overstepping his bounds" but the coven having to "make reparations". Renesmee wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but she knew that her Alpha was very good at overstepping his bounds and that if Jake was pushing the issue, whatever the issue was, then life was no different than normal.

The coven making reparations was different, though. Renesmee couldn't remember that having ever happened in her lifetime.

As she spun in her grandfather's spinning chair, Renesmee considered calling her wolf, but he didn't have a phone. It seemed impolite to call Mister Rico's number, even though the little girl had committed the number to memory the first time her wolf had called from it. Jake was most likely busy, and she had already called Seth earlier this morning and no one had picked up. Renesmee assumed that the still weakened Beta was sleeping.

With no one to call, and nothing to do, Renesmee decided that she could play pretend. After all, no one was looking. The song on the iPod was suggesting that she "take it easy", and since a raven might be a trickster but an eagle should always be listened to, Renesmee closed her eyes and pretended to take it easy. It was one of the more complicated things she had pretended to do since she had been the Bubble Queen.

She really had been a very good Bubble Queen.

Renesmee had never taken it easy before, but she had seen her Packmates very relaxed. In particular her Beta seemed to epitomize the ideal of taking it easy. If anyone could sprawl with abandon, it was Seth Clearwater. Renesmee knew that the hospital was her grandfather's workplace and therefore she should be on her best behavior, so she tried to modify Seth's full bodied sprawl into something more contained and discreet.

The arm draped above her head on the chair was classic. The fingernails tapping on the arm of the chair was Renesmee's inner perfectionist coming out. But the foot kicked up casually on the desk was pure indulgence on her part and even in her Sprawling State Of Being, Renesmee couldn't maintain it. So she decided to not cross her legs at the knees and the little girl slouched deeply in the chair instead.

No wonder her Packmates enjoyed slouching so much. The world seemed so much calmer when one viewed it from a few inches lower than their normal vantage point.

Closing her eyes, it was easy to imagine all the wonderful places she could be sprawling. On the grass by her bunny cage was one of them, in a tree with her wolf was another. She sprawled in the costume shop with Jacob but that became too crowded. After all, Halloween was a very important day in the world now, and everyone wanted to put on their face paint and wings and make a new friend. So Renesmee sprawled on the playground, at least until a handful of girls told her that she seemed nice and smart and not at all too big for her age. Did she want to play with them? Why yes. Yes she did.

A knock at the window made Renesmee's eyes snap open, and she saw her grandfather and Dr. Foster peering through the glass at her, their faces split with matching grins. Renesmee gave a little eeping noise, embarrassed that she had been caught in a Sprawling State Of Being, but Misty just gave her a thumbs up and then winked at Renesmee, waggling her fingers in goodbye. Carlisle came in the room and gave the little girl a broad smile.

"Well, since my favorite granddaughter has been declared 'fit as a fiddle', then our work here is done. Are you ready to go, Nessie?"

Renesmee nodded and carefully turned of Misty's iPod, placing it in her grandfather's top drawer so the other doctor could find it. "Yes, Grandpa."

Her grandfather turned off the lights and locked the office door behind them, and Renesmee tucked her hand into his larger one as they walked through the halls towards the staff parking lot. The nurses and the doctors all knew Renesmee as Carlisle's granddaughter, and she smiled shyly back at the adults as they made sure to tell her hello. Was she doing well? Yes, thank you. Except for a slight feeling of regretfulness that she couldn't shake, Renesmee was feeling quite fine indeed.

After the third time she answered honestly, Carlisle chuckled and ruffled Renesmee's bronze curls.

"You know, Nessie, you can just tell them you're fine," the vampire teased her. "Most adults aren't used to a child telling them that they are feeling regretful. What are you regretful about, o' granddaughter of mine? "

Renesmee smiled up at her him. "Oh, I'm not feeling regretful, Grandpa, but I think that Mister Jack is. Every so often I think I can feel what he's feeling."

Carlisle kept his smile, but Renesmee could hear him murmur to himself in a tone he had thought was too low for her ears, "And that's not disturbing at _all_."

Not sure why her connection to her wolf would be disturbing, Renesmee tugged on her grandfather's hand. "Grandpa? Can I tell you something?"

"Of course, Nessie," he assured her, glancing down curiously. "Was it about your Jack?"

"No, Grandpa." The little girl and then lowered her head. "I listened to yours and Dr. Foster's conversation." Carlisle gave her a disapproving look, and Renesmee ducked her head a little lower. "I knew I shouldn't have but I was curious, Grandpa. I'm sorry if I've upset."

Carlisle sighed and then squeezed her hand as they walked. "No, I'm not upset, Renesmee, but I suppose I can guess at the questions then."

Renesmee looked up at her grandfather curiously. "Grandpa, am I sick? Because I don't feel sick. I get really thirsty sometimes, but when I'm not thirsty, I always feel fine."

The vampire reached into his pocket and clicked the unlock button to his car, making the headlights flash. However, instead of getting in the car, Carlisle knelt down next to her in the parking lot.

"I think that you're a very special little girl, Renesmee," he told her gently. "And so I think that the normal rules don't apply to you. I don't think you're sick, but I want to understand how you function biologically so I can make sure you _stay_ that way. You're my only granddaughter and the most important thing in our coven. Protecting you is our utmost priority. The reason I asked Misty to give a consult is because she's a human, Nessie. I've been a vampire for a very long time, and I know that has changed the way I think. Having someone else, someone who still thinks like a human, may help me understand you better. But it's nothing for you to worry about."

Renesmee nodded and then gave her grandfather a hug. "I love you too, Grandpa. But I really don't feel sick," she promised him, hoping to reassure him, and Carlisle chuckled.

"And that's a very good thing, Nessie."

To Renesmee's pleasure her grandfather treated her to a hamburger and a strawberry milkshake at the diner down the street from the hospital. As she happily slurped down her milkshake, Renesmee enjoyed seeing how everyone seemed to smile at her grandfather, how they always stopped to say hello and exchange a few pleasantries with him. It was obvious that Carlisle Cullen was one of the town's pride and joys. He was a nationally recognized medical professional and Forks was lucky to have him. The little girl couldn't help but think as her grandfather treated everyone he spoke to with kindness and respect that he was a good person. Her grandfather may have been a vampire, but he was a good one.

As they drove back towards the coven, Renesmee closed her eyes and leaned her head against the seat belt. As she drifted off, she could feel that place in the back of her stomach that ached slightly, that place that felt loneliness and loss. Renesmee tried to focus on that feeling, but it was like trying to catch water with an open hand, and the feelings slipped away and out of her reach. The loneliness softened to almost nothing, and Renesmee started to fall into a deeper sleep.

With a growl, her grandfather hit the brakes hard enough to make the tires squeal as they dug into cold blacktop, startling the little girl and making her sit up in surprise.

Renesmee's seatbelt had kept her in place, and even a half-vampire isn't going to get thrown out of sorts by a quickly stopping vehicle, so Renesmee peered out of the front window curiously. There was nothing on the road that should have caused her grandfather to stop. Carlisle swung the car to the side of the road and then he unbuckled his own seatbelt, a frown on his face. Then Renesmee saw what he had seen and she blinked in surprise. There was another vampire here, one easily just as big Jacob, standing in the middle of the road nearly a mile away. He was bundled up in winter clothing, his black hair covering most of his dark features, but Renesmee's eyes were good enough to pick out the scarring on his skin. Like Uncle Jasper, someone had been biting on him.

"Renesmee, I want you to stay in the car but keep your door open and your seatbelt unbuckled," Carlisle said curtly. "If I turn around, you run back the way we came as fast as you can. Get to the Pack and stay with them. Do you understand?"

Carlisle's cell phone rang as Renesmee whispered, "I understand, Grandpa."

The coven leader nodded, but never looked at her as he slipped out of the car. "The warning is a little late, Alice," her grandfather said smoothly as he walked in front of the vehicle, and then with the speed that only vampires and wolves could maintain, he disappeared up the road. Renesmee unbuckled her seat belt and then opened her door as her grandfather had told her. She could see the other vampire peering over Carlisle's shoulder towards the car, but the coven leader stepped in the vampire's line of sight. The little girl didn't realize that she was holding her breath until the unknown vampire turned and went the opposite way.

Suddenly Carlisle was standing next to the car again, faster than he had moved before.

"Grandpa? Is everything okay?" Renesmee asked worriedly as he climbed in and shut his door, and the little girl did the same.

Carlisle frowned and signaled to the empty road that he was merging back into the lane. "Renesmee? Did your Jack mention anything about his friend Rico leaving town? Permanently?"

Renesmee shook her head and then realized sadly that her wolf must have been feeling those things she had been feeling inexplicably earlier because of Mister Rico leaving. It made Renesmee feel very bad for her wolf. It was a sad thing to lose a friend, and Mister Jack and Mister Rico had been friends for a very long time.

"Renesmee?"

"No, Grandpa," she replied, shaking her head. "He didn't say anything. Who was the vampire?"

Her grandfather frowned and said, "He is one of the Volturi, and that one's mistress has been keeping an eye on Rico. He just wanted to know if we knew where Rico was."

"Maybe you can ask Mister Jack later?" Renesmee suggested helpfully. "Mommy and Daddy had told Jacob that Mister Jack could come over this evening. I wanted to read him some new poems anyways."

The vampire nodded and then murmured to himself, "You're right, Nessie. I may just have to do that."

Content that everything was right again in the world, Renesmee put her head back on the seatbelt and closed her eyes. She dreamed of forests, and vampires, and wolves, and of a world long forgotten. Laughing as she ran and played beneath the sun and the stars, a wolf at her side and a thousand more slipping through the trees, she sank deeper into her dreams, oblivious to her fingertips tingling.

* * *

The Alpha's imprint was destroying a punching bag in her back yard. Designed by Embry to be more wolf-proof than normal punching bags, the one was sitting on a stack of cement blocks and held upright by a steel frame. Three bags had been sewn together and filled with heavy black lifting weights.

By the way Samantha was attacking it, the bag wouldn't last out the day.

She tried to ignore the Alpha's motorcycle as it rumbled up the drive, tried to ignore him as he ambled around the house and plopped down in a lawn chair near the back porch, tried to ignore him as he started making sympathetic noises for the punching bag's pain. It wasn't easy. Shaky and off-center, the way she had been since managing to phase back and stay human again, Samantha found herself unable to succeed at her task.

Anything beyond the normal was skewing with her attention span right now, whether it was loud or soft noises, intense emotions in the people around her, or excessive smells. And the Alpha was anything but normal. Just in being in his proximity, Samantha knew that Jake had been near the vampire coven and hadn't showered yet, that he had been nearer than that to Cassie and Paul, and that he had eaten chocolate today. Oh, and she knew that he was her Alpha and as such _demanded_ her attention.

"Go away."

It was abrupt and rude, but right now the newest she-wolf had something else to focus on. She really didn't want to be focused on the Alpha and when he was in the vicinity it made it nearly _impossible_ not to be. So Samantha took out her frustration at his presence by landing a solid roundhouse to the bag, nearly knocking it over despite having tried to pull her kick. If the bag had been a human, her kick would have killed them. Samantha was trying to tell herself that it was that reason and that reason alone that Embry wouldn't let her back in the dojo right now. It was a lot easier on her heart than the alternatives.

Instead of looking offended, Jake just chuckled. "Hello to you, too."

Samantha paused mid-kick, thankful that her balance wasn't as shaky as her hands, and she looked backwards over her shoulder, foot still higher than her head and poised a few inches from the bag. "Hello, Jacob Black," she said in a much nicer voice. Then her eyes narrowed. "Now go away." She twisted backwards and slammed her foot into the bag in a high reverse roundhouse kick.

"Dramatic touch there," Jake smirked. "It would have been better if the bag had burst and weights had gone everywhere."

"I'm working…_thump_…on my control…_thump_. Just because I can't compete…_thump_ _**thwack**_…damn…"

She had knocked the whole thing over, stand and concrete blocks and everything. Frustrated, Samantha righted the equipment and muscled the weight bag back in place. "Now I know why Jared kept busting these," she muttered.

"Hazard of being an lupine super beast," Jake told her with a yawn. "We break shit."

Samantha raised an eyebrow at the Alpha. "Super beast?"

"There's even a Rob Zombie theme song for us and everything. Have Embry burn you a copy."

Despite herself, Samantha smirked at that one, adjusting the bag before returning to her original stance. "You're in a strange mood. Hanging out with Seth too much? Brotherhood bonding on your two's level is borderline incestuous, Jacob Black."

"Says Lee-lee's evil twin, Samantha Carter. But if you want to get incestuous with her, make sure to videotape it and give it to Collin. He'll make sure you two make a killing."

The she-wolf snorted and then returned to her workout. It was easier to concentrate now, and if the Alpha wasn't going anywhere, Samantha figured she might as well make use of him. Trying to drown out the rest of the world besides him and her punching bag, Samantha was able to split her focus enough so that she was able to pull her kicks the way she had been trying to. Still, her foot lightly slapping the bag was enough to take down a normal one. She'd have to control herself enough that her foot barely brushed it.

"You've been upset all day," the Alpha mentioned after a while of watching her beating up her bag. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Samantha grimaced. "If I wanted to talk about it, I would have brought it up, Jacob Black."

The Alpha nodded and settled deeper into the lawn chair, folding his arms behind his head as he stretched out and tried to relax. The imprint bond between them was a tricky thing, a thing that Jake had been working at constantly to learn how to control. Neither one of them particularly wanted the other into their private thoughts and emotions, and Samantha's phasing had only made the imprint bond widen. Right now Samantha knew that Jake was equally distracted today, and he had tried to go crash out, but he couldn't sleep. Coming to see her had been more to calm himself than to spend actual time with her, although if they could calm _each other_, Jake was okay with that too.

No matter how hard he tried to taper it down, the Alpha was in her head all the time.

As much as Samantha didn't want reality intruding upon her private little corner of existence, there was no changing the fact that the Alpha affected her. It was easier to concentrate after he had been there for a given amount of time, and there was a part of her that was able to take a deep, calming breath because of that. He helped her regain normalcy, but in doing so, made her all the more aware of him. And while some parts of him calmed her down, some other, deeper parts of Jacob Black made Samantha Carter very nervous, to the point that it was hard not to either attack him out of self-defense or run away screaming.

"Run away screaming, huh?"

"Stay out of my head."

The Alpha smiled slightly and then slouched down on the chair. "I'm not so bad, you know," he teased her. "I'm no Embry, but I'm not so bad."

"Shut up," Samantha said flatly. "I'm still pissed at you for that meeting shit, and I can finally do something about it. Oh, and if you try to stop me from going back to school this week, I _will_ do something about it."

"It's never a good day until you've been threatened a few times by your so-called soul mate," the Alpha chuckled and Samantha flipped him off before switching to punches. "Why are you mad at me exactly? This time anyways?"

Samantha ignored his amused tone as she threw a few half-hearted jabs and then went back to kicks. Her legs were tense and she needed to get some of this insane amount of energy out of her system. "You set Embry up, Jake," Samantha growled back, her hands shaking slightly as she kept them near her face in a defensive position. "You set Embry up to take hell from the Pack, and you set him up to feel like hell when it was over. He bought into it too, did you know that? He'll barely look at me right now."

"Honey, he's barely looked at you since you phased," Jake said gently. "At least, not when you're doing okay. When you're about to fall apart, he can't focus on anything _but_ you. If you're going to be angry, at least be honest about it. Whatever you're upset about started before that meeting, because we both know neither of you normally wouldn't give a damn what anyone else had to say. And my brother's tougher than you're giving him credit for. He's our fourth, he can handle some heat."

Samantha clamped her teeth down until she could hear them grinding together. Then she forced herself into a semblance of calmness. "Why are you here, Jake?"

"Can't sleep," the Alpha yawned. "Juneau will eat me."

"What?"

"Nothing. Hey, come for a run with me," he said suddenly, standing up and gesturing to the forest.

The she-wolf raised her eyebrow at his request. "Run where exactly?"

"Does it matter?" he asked. "Just run with me, and stop looking so freaked out, I don't mean with you phased. Just go for a run with me around the rez, it'll help us both. I need to think about some things."

She gave him a suspicious look, but Jake just shrugged innocently. Finally Samantha sighed and kicked her tennis shoes off. Running in them as a wolf was the best way to destroy the soles, and neither her nor Embry could afford her to have new ones right now. The Alpha did the same and then shrugged off the black leather jacket he always wore when on his bike. Apparently he thought it made him look cool, something Leah reminded him often wasn't true at all, just to pierce his 'bad boy biker bubble' as the she-wolf liked to call it.

"If _I_ started focusing on _your_ clothes, I'd get my ass kicked, Apple Girl," Jake chuckled and Samantha snorted.

"You want me about as much as I want you, if not less," she retorted. "It's fun having an emotionally needy and sexually stunted Alpha in my head."

The Alpha smirked at that and said, "Being a virgin is _in_ these days, honey. And you're not one to talk about being emotionally needy. You and Emb are the poster children for co-dependency."

Samantha rolled her eyes as she began trotting into the forest. "Jake, nothing you do is _in_. And no pet names. It only makes me want to kick your ass even more."

Funny how her half-hearted threats made Jake laugh, and how her rolling her eyes at him made him feel a little better with the world as he knew it.

It was a strange thing, running with Jake. Samantha had to take two strides for every one of his, but he was good at matching his speed to someone else's. But you see, that was the thing between them: running side by side wasn't good enough. Samantha wasn't sure when she started running faster, wolf-enhanced muscles sending her flying through the forest, brown and green streaking past her like a constantly shifting kaleidoscope, one that she could pick out every single color, every single detail. She didn't know when the massive man at her side picked up his pace, his muscles bunching and stretching beneath his black shirt as he flung himself forward with a sort of fiercely reckless abandon that Samantha had never seen in any of the rest of the wolves. This was the Alpha, the one whose actions weren't controlled by some higher power, and that showed in his face.

Jake was free.

Jake was free and she hated him for that, hated him for his freedom when the rest of them were caught beneath his fist, destined to live or die at his whim. Maybe that was what had held her apart from the rest of them since the beginning. Jake's whim wasn't good enough for her, his dominance, his control would never be sufficient for her.

For over a year Samantha had fought them, had fought this, had gone head to head with the Pack and with the Alpha for control. Unfortunately she had been a human and there had only been so much strength in her body, strength that had failed over and over again. But she had a new body now, one that may be just a screwed up as her last one, but she had her own power now. She didn't have to wait for Embry to save her, she didn't have to struggle uselessly. She had always gone down fighting, but there was a hell of a lot more fight in her now than there ever had been. And maybe that was the difference between the male wolves and the females, because phasing had changed them all, but it changed the females _more_. It changed them more terribly, but so much _better_, and suddenly Samantha was laughing, laughing as she dug deeper and grabbed that _more_, using it to send herself pushing past the Alpha.

Jake blinked in surprise, and then that fierceness in his eyes grew. Samantha could hear his heart beating harder, forcing more blood to his limbs, making him stronger, and making him faster. The Alpha fought for it, but then he was even with her shoulder, a millimeter ahead of her, a millimeter more. The instinct hit her hard, too hard to stop herself even though Samantha knew intrinsically that it was wrong. Just because she gave Jake a tough time to keep him at arm's length didn't mean she actually wanted to hurt him, but she just couldn't stop herself from reacting to the power play.

The male Alpha had the briefest moment of warning before she threw herself sideways into him, but that warning wasn't enough to keep him from staggering at the hit, the kaleidoscope twisting in a jumble of russet and black cotton and wide-eyed surprise along with the brown and green. Even as he stumbled, she tried to correct her mistake by grabbing for him, succeeding only in losing her own feet. Both wolves went down.

Balance from years of martial arts couldn't stop her from going headfirst into a jutting piece of limestone in the rocky terrain, the Alpha slamming into the same piece next to her. Jake's momentum flipped him over the rock and the she-wolf, and he cursed as his body was abruptly stopped by the waiting arms of a half destroyed evergreen. Samantha groaned as she pulled her head out of the circular hole it had made into the limestone, and she fell back on her rear end, blinking rapidly as dirt and stone dust dropped from her hair into her eyes.

"I'm going to have to tell Cass that she's no longer the last person to make me eat it," Jake grumbled to himself as he tried to disentangle himself from the branches. "You really don't like to lose, do you, Samantha Carter?"

"Oww," Samantha decided as she staggered to her feet and stumbled over to Jake, offering her hand to the cursing Alpha, who was fighting valiantly with the branches. "Not really, but it's more that I especially don't like to lose to _you_, Jacob Black. But yeah…sorry about that."

The Alpha took her hand and allowed her to help hoist him to his feet, but when she went to step back, his fingers stayed around hers. Samantha looked at him in surprise as Jake gazed down at their clasped hands. Then he gave her a quirky smile. "I don't like to lose to you either," Jake admitted, looking up at her face. "But it annoys me less to lose to you than to most others."

Samantha nodded and then pulled her hand away, sticking her fists in her sweatshirt pockets as she held his gaze steadily. His smile widened slightly as he broke the staring contest. The Alpha walked over to the now crumbling ridgeline and plopped down on top of it, feet dangling. "Do you know how many people will actually look at me in the eyes anymore?" Jake asked, thumping his right heel into the hole that was shaped like Samantha's head. "Lee-lee and Seth, some of the leeches, and now you."

The she-wolf didn't say anything, but she did walk over and settle down a few feet away from the Alpha. Jake rested his elbows on his knees, arms draped loosely over his knees. He gazed down at his feet, expression clouding over, but whatever he was thinking about, the Alpha kept to himself. Samantha was quiet a long time, folding her legs beneath her as she eventually asked, "Jake? Can I ask you a question?"

The Alpha nodded, and Samantha pursed her lips. "Will you consider letting me out of the Pack? You offered last night to the rest of the Pack, but you said I had to stay."

Jake stilled at her request, and then he asked slowly, "Why do you want me to? Any particular reason?"

The she-wolf hesitated, as if weighing her words, and then she said, "I can't stop being your imprint, Jake, but I could stop being your Packmate. And that would maybe make things…easier. Less complicated."

"Easier for you or easier for Embry?" the Alpha wondered out loud, and at his knowing look, the she-wolf flushed unhappily, clamping her mouth shut. Jake waited, and then the Alpha turned and mimicked her position.

"Samantha?" Jake told her gently after her silence had become too loud and too apparent. "The world's not going to come crashing down to your feet if you talk to me."

Samantha stood up and began to prowl, the edge the run had taken off of her restlessness starting to return. She opened her mouth a second time and then clamped it back shut once more. "I don't want to talk about it," she said quietly, repeating her earlier words.

"Don't _want_ to talk about it or don't want to _risk_ talking about it?" Jake asked. She didn't reply, but the Alpha waited patiently and then finally Samantha caved, her face falling unhappily.

"Maybe it's just me," she said worriedly. "Maybe I'm misreading things, and I don't want to talk about things that I'm not even sure of. I think when I phased that it rattled me, Jake. Sometimes I'm not sure what I think, or what I'm supposed to do. And I think I've been doing and thinking all the wrong things. Embry's getting the brunt of all of this and maybe not having to see inside my head would be better for him..."

The Alpha relaxed backwards on his hands, giving her a small smile. "I think phasing rattles all of us. Just because you had a better idea of what was coming doesn't make it less life changing. Stop being so hard on yourself about getting back to normal, pat yourself on the back for having the courage to do it in the first place, and give yourself time to get used to all of this. It's not easy, honey."

Samantha continued to pace, and Jake caught her wrist as she went past him. "Samantha?" The Alpha said kindly. "I know through what you're doing…well, what you're _not_ doing at night, that things aren't the same right now. But Embry loves you. Whatever's going on, let Emb get through it on his own terms. He's not going to stop loving you just because two of his Packmates bitched him out for it. Have some faith in him and just give him some time too."

Samantha stilled, her head dropping as she exhaled heavily, nodding. It was easy to want to confide in the Alpha, but Samantha had drawn a line and she knew what side she needed to stay on. So she settled on dropping to her heels next to him, making their heads level. It was a small gesture of respect, but she understood that he really was trying to be kind to her.

"So is that a no to you releasing me?" she asked after a while, and Jack released her wrist, not seeming to remember he had taken it in the first place.

The massive wolf nodded. "Without a better reason than you worrying about what Embry sees you thinking, yeah. That's a no. Come up with a better reason and we can talk about it again. Either way, I won't let you be the 'lone' part of a lone wolf. You need to stick with our Pack even if you're not a part of it anymore."

"I was planning on it, anyways." The she-wolf agreed and then suddenly she tried to leave the Pack forcibly. It was clumsily done, and she wasn't centered enough to succeed, but she still tried.

Jake grunted in momentary discomfort and then he chuckled. "I'm sorry, honey. You, of all of the wolves, are stuck with me."

"It was worth a shot," she shrugged. "I'll wait until you're asleep and try again. Seth is healing and Leah needs my company, not necessarily me in her Pack."

Jake grinned at her. "Sneaky, very sneaky, but not sneaky enough. I used to do the same shit to Sam constantly and it never worked."

"Are we bonding over not liking our Alphas, Jacob Black?" Samantha asked dryly.

The Alpha smirked at her as he rose fluidly to his feet. "We're bonding over our realization that we didn't appreciate our Alphas nearly as much as they deserved. Run with me."

"No," she said instinctively, but Samantha was smiling slightly and readying her muscles.

Jake barked out a laugh and shook his head. "Are you always going to be this difficult?" he asked and Samantha nodded.

"Probably," Samantha chuckled, but as she met his eyes, her smile slowly slipped away. She hesitated and then whispered, "You scare me, Jacob Black."

The Alpha considered that and then took a few jogging steps backwards. "I know I do, Samantha Carter," he admitted in a quiet rumble. "To be honest, sometimes I scare myself too."

Fear had never made either one of them a coward. They ran together anyways.

* * *

Her wolf didn't know where Mister Rico had gone to, but he had known where the snacks were kept by scent alone. Apparently even polite wolves like her own could only be expected to stay out of the cupboards for so long when given free rein to indulge themselves. Renesmee's parents and grandparents were home, and all four seemed amused at his pleasure when they had told him to "help himself," and more amused that he had restrained himself to a deliberate slaughtering of crackers and sausage and cheese.

Seth usually wanted Esme to cook him up a few dozen hamburgers or a whole sheet cake when he was told to "help himself", so his level of self-control had been declared as "appreciated".

Currently Renesmee was curled up on the couch, pulling a blanket over her as she snuggled up with her poetry book. "Mister Jack? Would you like for me to read to you?" she asked him hopefully.

Her wolf had settled himself on the living room floor, a platter of crackers and cheese and sausage slices in front of him. Jack had been eating for most of the evening, not unlike the rest of Renesmee's Pack when they came around, but it occurred to her that he had much better manners about it. Instead of stuffing the food down his throat the way her Alpha usually did, Jack seemed to take a sort of quiet enjoyment out of arranging the cheese and sausage slices on the crackers, carefully making each one as similar to the last as he could before eating it.

Renesmee was very proud of her wolf. He hadn't even dropped a single crumb anywhere.

The wolf in question finished chewing his current cracker and swallowed before answering her question. "If you are so inclined, imprint," Jack told her in his low rough voice. "You are always welcome to read to me, although I prefer your own words to the words of another."

He liked her better than poetry. For the little girl, that was the best compliment she had ever received. Blushing at his comment, Renesmee couldn't help the smile that came to her face, although she tried to hide it behind the pages of the poetry book as she read.

_**Cherokee Prayer**_

_As I walk the trail of life_

_in the fear of the wind and rain,_

_grant O Great Spirit_

_that I may always walk_

_like a man_

"As I walk the trail of life, in the fear of the wind and rain, grant O Great Spirit, that I may always walk like a man," Renesmee repeated, folding the book of poems on her lap the way she always did after reading a poem, large or small, and allowing herself to think about what the poem might mean.

"Did the Cherokee woman give you that book?" her wolf asked quietly, after having given her the time she required in her reflecting. Renesmee nodded and offered the book to Jack, but he merely shook his head. It was easier, he had once told her, not to accidentally learn to read if one never looked at words.

"Yes, Dr. Foster gave it to me a while ago," Renesmee replied, opening the book back up and rereading the poem. "Mommy says that I can't always take poetry literally, and that I have to think what it could actually mean to the author. But I think that the author could have prayed to the Great Spirit to make the weather safer so he didn't have to be scared. Instead he chose to pray for himself, which seems like a harder, more circumventing way of dealing with this issue."

Her wolf listened to what she thought and then nodded silently.

"Mister Jack?" Renesmee asked curiously, sinking down into the cushions and snuggling beneath her blanket. "What did you think about the poem?"

"When one walks as a wolf, it loses the desire to need to walk as a man," he replied, eyes amused as he handed her one of his crackers. "But I am not Cherokee. Perhaps their wolves believe differently."

Renesmee wasn't allowed to eat on the furniture without a plate and tray, but no one was watching, her mother was shielding everyone so her father could relax more, and Renesmee knew that her wolf would never tell. So she accepted the cracker with a smile of thanks and then tried her best to eat silently and get as few crumbs on her blanket as she could. Jack went back to creating his stacks of crackers and chewing them contentedly. The little girl pressed her fingers to the paper and thought harder.

"Mister Jack? What do you think it means that he wants to walk like a man? Fear doesn't stop a human from being a human."

Her wolf placed a slice of sausage down first, placed the cheese over top of it experimentally, and then went back to the original order of sausage over cheese. "Does my imprint not believe that a man and a human can be different?"

Renesmee thought about that, struggling to understand what he was asking her. "I believe that humans are made up of men and women. And that a man can't be anything _but_ a human. Biologically they are the same, just different words for the same meaning."

Jack offered her another cracker, and Renesmee took it unthinkingly. "Perhaps it is not retaining his physical form that the man prays for, imprint. Perhaps he prays to retain that which makes him what he wants to be."

"I don't understand, Mister Jack. How can you be anything but what you are? Even if the things you like or the things that you do change, you are still biologically the creature you have always been. That can't change. A human is born the human that they are, and unless they are changed into another creature altogether, like a vampire or a wolf, they are still that human. It's the decision of _who_ I'm supposed to be that always confuses me. What should I like, what should I think about, how should I act? What side of my heritage should I try to emulate? But the what of what I am is easy. I know what I am, a half vampire and a half human. And you are a wolf, and also a man."

Her wolf paused in his cracker creations and then he said quietly, "I am both of those things."

Renesmee had the feeling that her wolf wanted to say more, but that he was debating whether or not to speak. So she held out her hand to him. Jack saw the action, and then with a slight smile he placed his much larger hand in hers. She tapped her thumb on his rough palm once before smiling at him encouragingly and pulling her hand away.

"Perhaps if my imprint stopped focusing so hard on who and what she is and simply allowed herself to _be_, she would find the world a less confusing place," Jack murmured ever so softly, his voice cautious even as he spoke.

The little girl fell quiet at that, turning his suggestion over in her mind. Jack had taught her his language, some of it anyways, and some of the ways of his people, and some of the ways of himself. She had learned from him more than he realized, but she had never thought about how carefully he had always chosen his words when speaking to her. It was strange seeing him openly hesitant like this. As if he could tell what she was thinking, Jack ducked his head.

"It is my place to protect you, imprint, and to bring you what happiness I am able," he said even more softly. "I…do not wish to make things more difficult for you, Renesmee by confusing."

Renesmee smiled at her wolf and shook her head. "No, Mister Jack. You didn't confuse me. You said that you wouldn't be upset if I disagreed with you, so of course I'm not going to be upset if you disagree with me." To make sure he knew she wasn't upset, the little girl sat up and gathered her blanket and her book, moving to sit on the carpet next to her wolf. She leaned against his side, curling back under her blanket and turning to the next poem. Jack went still, and then his expression grew torn.

"Imprint, your presence and proximity is always welcome and enjoyed, but your parents prefer more distance between us than this," he reminded her gently.

"I don't really understand that either, Mister Jack. It doesn't bother them if Jacob or Seth are close to me, or any of the Pack actually. You've always been very nice to me, Mister Jack, so I don't understand why it isn't the same with you."

Her wolf had already been still, but Renesmee was certain that he grew more so. "It is…complicated, imprint," Jack murmured.

Renesmee nodded, but she stayed right where she was, although to make her wolf more comfortable, she sat up so that she wasn't leaning on him anymore. She read the next poem out loud to them both.

_**Cherokee Traveller's Greeting**_

_I will draw thorns from your feet._

_We will walk the White Path of Life together._

_Like a brother of my own blood,_

_I will love you._

_I will wipe tears from your eyes._

_When you are sad,_

_I will put your aching heart to rest._

Her wolf's gaze had clouded over, and Renesmee unthinkingly curled back into her wolf's side. This time he did not stiffen uncomfortably, although he did glance down at her with tired eyes. "You seem determined to get me in trouble, imprint," he told her, carefully placing another cracker on the corner of her blanket.

"I'm very much an instigator of all things devious and dastardly, Mister Jack," Renesmee told him with a grin as she plucked the cracker up and popped it into her mouth. "Did you know that I was once a pirate captain?"

"When my imprint is around, I learn many things," Jack murmured, clearly impressed with her pirating. "You have not told me your thoughts on the greeting, imprint. Perhaps Quileute poetry is more to your liking?"

Renesmee reread the poem, and then gave herself time to think. When she was done, she settled her shoulders to Jack's ribs and brought her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and wiggling her tingling toes as she stared off through the windows that lined the living room wall. Her feet must have been falling asleep. "I think it means that the author will care about the traveller, even if they had been strangers up until their meeting. I think that it means that they will neither the traveller nor the one greeting them will be lonely anymore. They will be friends."

Jack nodded and finished with his crackers. "That is a good thing to be, imprint," he told her quietly. "Friends are precious, and they are a gift that should never be wasted."

Renesmee bit her lip and then said softly, "I'm sorry your friend went away, Mister Jack." The little girl smiled up at him shyly. "I don't really have many friends, Mister Jack, and I've never lost one before, so I don't know what that's like. But I'll try to be a better friend for you if you want me to be. I'm very happy to still have you as a friend."

He smiled back at her, and she could see the clouded over expression clearing, his gaze softening before he glanced away. "That is also a good thing," Jack murmured softly. "But do not concern yourself with either myself or the Cold One, imprint. There is no need."

"You don't have to protect me if you feel sad, Mister Jack," Renesmee said, blushing at her forwardness into his private matters, but her wolf just smiled and reached over to tickle her big toe, the one that was sticking out from under the blanket. She giggled and hid her toes beneath the safety of the blanket, and Jack's smile softened in affection at her happiness.

"There will be no need to draw thorns from _your_ feet, Renesmee," he decided with a twinkle in his eyes. "A raven imprint is far too clever to rest on a thorn bush. That is for more stubborn, difficult imprints to attempt. As your wolf, it shall be my task to ensure our imprinting will be thorn-free."

"And you won't ever be sad, because a wolf has much more important things to be," Renesmee giggled. "As your imprint, I'll make sure to avoid sad movies and any bad things."

Jack smiled down at her again and when someone coughed pointedly in the next room over, Jack stood up, drawing her to her feet. "It will be a good path we will walk, imprint," he decided, gently urging her towards the couch where she had previously been sitting. "And better walked together."

Renesmee beamed at that and then she snuggled into the couch cushions, her wolf adjusting the blanket over her before winking and returning to his spot on the floor. She read for a while quietly, half listening to his heartbeat and half listening to the sounds of his steady breathing. When he held his breath for an uncommonly long time, Renesmee glanced up in concern, only to have Jack wink at her teasingly. He knew she was listening to him, knew that she was paying close attention. It didn't seem to bother him in the least.

The little girl supposed that was what it meant to be imprinted. To be connected to someone, to care if they were breathing, to pay attention if their heart was beating. Maybe that was why no one ever imprinted on a full vampire, because they did neither of those two things. Of course if that was the case, then her wolf had only imprinted on half of her, the human half, and that seemed like a very sad thing indeed. After all, Renesmee wanted to be cared about for everything that she was, not just half of what she was.

Either way, at this moment her wolf seemed to care for all of her, and reminding herself of that made the little girl feel better. Maybe when she was older that would change, but hopefully not. Renesmee knew that imprinting was a wolf selecting its future or current mate and forming a deep attachment with them. The little girl had been watching her Packmates for clues as to what that would mean for her in the future, but her Pack weren't a very good control group. Jacob and his imprint had skewed the patterns, and Renesmee wasn't sure if that deviations from the standard were to be expected or if the Alphas of the Pack were just a pair of anomalies—

"You dropped a feather, imprint," Jack murmured in quiet amusement, her wolf leaning to pick up an imaginary feather off of the carpet and handing it to her. Renesmee giggled at his silliness and his way of acknowledging that she was thinking so hard, but she accepted the feather.

"Thank you Mister Jack," she replied politely, grinning at him as she tried to stick her feather back on her wing. "I would have gotten cold without that one."

Jack stretched in place and gave her a wolfish grin but said nothing. His eyes half closed, not warily but in true sleepiness, and Renesmee settled into the couch more as she turned to him. "Mister Jack?" the little girl asked, closing her book and holding it to her chest. "What does our imprinting mean?"

"I think we have already decided that, Renesmee," he said with a slight curving of his lips. "No thorn bushes or sad movies."

The child closed her eyes and then asked softly, "But what will it _actually_ mean? Paul, Jared, Sam, and their imprints are adults, and they are in love. But Jacob and his imprint only stare at each other and pretend that they aren't imprinted at all. Is that normal? Or are everyone else normal? What will we be?"

She opened her eyes and saw him staring a hole in the carpet, face tensed. Renesmee was too focused on her questions and their conversation to feel the weight of her family's silence in the next room.

"We will be friends," her wolf finally said truthfully, although he sounded deeply uncomfortable. "And when you are grown, if that is no longer enough for you, we will become more, as the others in the Pack already are. Rarely do those that are imprinted on so young prefer a different path, and my wolf has chosen you as our eventual mate. Its mind will never change. I am bound to you, imprint, as all wolves are bound to their imprints. I will not be able to deny you want you want from me, and I am not the Alpha to fight it. Although I believe that even he mostly accommodates what his imprint wishes."

"Jack, she's too young for this conversation," Edward said sternly from the doorway, and her wolf's eyelids lowered halfway.

"I will not lie to her to ease your discomfort, Cold One," Jack replied firmly. "I will not lie to her to ease my own, either."

Edward's frown deepened and he glanced at his daughter. "Renesmee? It's time to go to bed. Jack, I'd like to speak with you outside, please."

The little girl realized that her wolf's previous words about getting him in trouble were true, and Renesmee gave Jack a sad look. "I'm sorry, Mister Jack," she whispered, touching her stomach briefly before turning to go. Perhaps if she went to be faster, her wolf would be in less trouble?

"Be at peace, imprint," Jack told her softly, his voice carrying to her ears as she hurried towards the stairs. "There are no apologies between us."

Apparently Renesmee's growing habit of eavesdropping had been discussed by her grandfather because her father and her wolf disappeared into the forests, their voices not carrying to her up in her bedroom. It wasn't very long before her mother came up to her room, an odd expression on Bella's perfectly sculpted features.

"Nessie?" Bella said, sitting down next to her and running a hand over her hair. "What Jack told you tonight, he shouldn't have told you. I don't want you thinking about him like that, as someone you…as someone you could marry one day. You're too young to think about things like that right now."

"But Mommy, isn't it always better to know as much as one can about a subject? And I know Mister Jack wasn't trying to upset anyone. It was my question and he was just explaining to me—"

Bella held up her hand, cutting her daughter off. "Renesmee, honey, not tonight, okay? No more Mister Jack tonight. Your father and I will talk to you about this more tomorrow, but you don't need to be thinking about these things."

Renesmee nodded, realizing that Bella was trying to hide the fact that she was very angry. So Renesmee gave her mother a hug and said that she would try. Bella kissed her goodnight and left the room, heading outside of the coven to join the conversation with Jack, and Renesmee hoped that her wolf wouldn't get too mad about the fact that Renesmee had gotten him in trouble with her parents.

Feeling slightly off, Renesmee went past her open window, but there was nothing that she could hear or see. Her fingers and toes tingled and a chill from the breeze caused gooseflesh to rise on her arms. Thoughtlessly, the little girl took out her rock and rolled it in her palm, the smooth plain side cool to her touch. Renesmee knew, she just _knew_ that there was a reason he had given it to her. As she started getting ready for bed, Renesmee tried to think about her wolf's culture, and what gifts meant, and what a gift from a wolf to his imprint could mean. She tried to think about the kind of rock it was, and the size, and the shape. And then she grew distracted by the colors, and she smiled as she stood in front of her mirror, looking down at her hand.

It really was a very nice rock, if one liked those sort of—This time when the thirst hit, it was instant and all encompassing. Renesmee didn't remember cracking the rock in her hand before dropping it to the ground, didn't realize that she let out a strangled scream as the thirst caused her throat to erupt in white hot fire. All she knew was that she needed to hunt, needed blood, and she needed it _now_.

This time she made it through her window and into the yard, only to get caught up in strong arms before she flung herself into the forest. She screamed again in agony as her body twisted and cramped down, growing, changing, _hurting_.

"Bella, hold her—"

"Carlisle, _what's happening_—"

"Jack, feed her, I think the wolf blood she's been drinking has been keeping these from getting as bad—"

Renesmee screamed one last time, her shredded throat ripping itself apart from the inside out, and then something was pressed to her lips. It smelled of what she so desperately needed, and so she bit down. She bit down hard enough that someone grunted at the pain of her teeth slicing through muscle and sinew and vein. Then she drank desperately, pain still twisting through her arms and legs, her torso and her hips. Her wolf was murmuring soothingly to her, soft words of comfort that she didn't know the meaning of.

"Carlisle, why is she in so much pain?"

"It may just be another growth spurt, but if it's the onset of puberty…that's supposed to take a couple years, Edward, not a couple minutes. It's hurting her. Jack, are you alright?"

"Just help her," her wolf growled, sounding not at all like himself. "Fix what you foolish Cold Ones have caused. My imprint is suffering."

"Jack, now's not the time—"

Even Renesmee flinched when Jack roared, "_**My imprint is suffering!**_"

A sharp intake of breath and a grunt, followed by a carefully controlled voice. "Edward, her pain is making him dangerous. Everyone needs to get back towards the house…_go_. I'll stay here."

"But what if…"

"He won't hurt her, but he may hurt all of you. This isn't a request, Edward. Go and call Jacob. Get him and Paul here _now_."

There was a snarl of frustration and then it was quiet, with just the sound of her feeding in her ears. Renesmee had never drank so heavily from something before, but no one tried to stop her. It was as if she couldn't get enough to satiate her, that for every drop that she took in, her body craved another hundred in its place. She drank and she drank, unaware that the arm pressed to her lips was shaking.

Another scent on the wind, and a female voice, hard with concern. "What the hell happened here? Shit…Jack, trade off with me. _I've got her_, Jack, trade off before you pass out."

The she-wolf's word registered in the vampire child's mind, and she managed to pull her teeth out of her best friend. In the time it took to have a slender, equally blood filled arm placed beneath her lips, Renesmee's throat burst aflame again, and she fell upon the she-wolf's arm helplessly.

Renesmee knew it was Leah, knew she should stop drinking, but it was so very difficult. Guilt warred with thirst, was blown apart by pain, and the little girl was bawling as she drank, unable to understand it all. Blindly she reached for the wolf her soul was tied to, and a hand closed over hers. Unable to control herself, Renesmee poured every bit of her distress through her gift into her wolf's head. He was growling loudly, but as Renesmee finally had the strength to pull away and stop hurting Leah, she turned and buried her face in her wolf's chest, sobbing brokenly.

"Carlisle?" the she-wolf was demanding. "What the hell happened?"

"She had a growth spurt, but waking this time. Jack, don't stand up yet. It's never been that bad before, Leah, but I think wolf blood is helping her. We're fortunate that Jack was already here and that you came."

"I was…I was just running. It doesn't matter. What's wrong with her?"

"The accelerated growth is draining her body of strength, triggering an excessive thirst that she couldn't control. Look at her, Leah. You can actually see her growing, although it's starting to slow now."

It was a growth that was hurting her too, and Renesmee couldn't stop crying. She desperately wanted to be brave, but it hurt. She opened her eyes and then squeezed them shut again, sobbing harder. There was blood everywhere. On her lips, on her neck and on her hands. Covering her wolf's arm and leg, a savage wound that she had torn down his forearm slowly healing and still dripping blood on them both. On Leah and her grandfather. But mostly on her and her wolf, a wolf that was rocking her back and forth, growling at the world around them in an angry rumble.

She had hurt him this time, and there was no taking that back. And the worst part was that the not-as-little girl could barely even remember doing it.

The coven was gaining a crowd, and as the wolves closed in, so did too the vampires, forming a ring around her. Her parents tried to take her again, but backed off when Carlisle waved them back. Her wolf was looking wild eyed and cornered, and he had enfolded her in his arms in a way to keep her from view, his growl growing louder and forcing his own Packmate's to back up as well.

"I'm a monster," Renesmee whispered brokenly. "Please go away. Please everyone just go away." She was so ashamed. She was so ashamed. Her body hadn't been the only thing that had changed this time, but also the chemicals that were flooding through her brain. Her hormone levels weren't just rising, they had skyrocketed, and what was left of her composure crumbled beneath them.

"Nessie, it's okay," Jake was crooning to her, ignoring Jack's warning snarl and resting his hand on her shoulder, but she flinched back from his touch, and Jack turned so that he was between the Alpha and herself.

"You lied to me, Jacob," Renesmee sobbed. "You lied to me, you said I wasn't a monster but I _am_. Look what I _did_. Look what I always do…" She tried to twist away out of her wolf's arms, but Jack wasn't allowing it. Instead he locked down around her, refusing to let her run away from him and her Pack, her parents and her coven, so many eyes on her. Realizing he wouldn't release her, Renesmee buried her face in his shoulder, too ashamed to look at him or any of the rest of them. Suddenly her emotions drained to calmness, a numb calmness that left the not quite as little girl crying silently.

Alice and Jasper were there.

There had been times that having her Uncle Jasper numb her emotions had made Renesmee resentful, but this time it was a relief. But Jasper's gift only went so far when he wasn't in physical contact with someone, and Renesmee's emotions were so deep and all-encompassing that her uncle couldn't shift her numbness into joy. When Jasper started to step forward to take her, Renesmee's wolf let out a snarl so savage that it made even Jake flinch. Jasper's eyes narrowed, and Renesmee realized that her wolf had swept her up as he stood, shifting so that no one, not even the Alpha could get near her now.

"Jack, if you don't hand over my daughter right now, you are _never_ coming near her again," Bella hissed furiously, Edward's own lower growl echoing the sentiments. Jack's returning snarl was borderline vicious.

"Don't threaten him, Bells," Jake warned quietly. "We'll deal with it later, but right now you need to give him a chance to calm down. Shut up for a minute and let him relax. Jack, buddy, her parents want her back. You have to give her back to them."

"_Jack…_"

"Bella, seriously, _shut up_. Jack, I know she was hurting, it made the rest of us freak out too. But take a deep breath and give her back to Bella and Edward."

"She was _suffering_," her wolf snarled. "If she needs me again…"

"Then we'll come and get you, Jack," Edward said quietly. "Bella and I need our daughter back, wolf."

And then there was silence again, with only her wolf's heartbeat in her ears as he paced, trying to keep his back turned to all of them, all at once. "I'm sorry, Mister Jack," Renesmee whispered over and over again. "I didn't mean to, I really didn't mean to."

Her wolf sucked in a tight breath and then another. "I will draw thorns from your feet, imprint," her wolf told her in a roughened voice, keeping her close. "We will walk the White Path of Life together."

"Like…like a brother of my own blood," the girl whispered through her tiny choked sobs. "I will…I will love you."

A palm against her face, a thumb dragging across her cheek. "I will wipe tears from your eyes," her wolf promised her, his voice harsh as if he was making a vow that meant so very much to him. "When you are sad, I will put your aching heart to rest. Do not be afraid, imprint...this path is not so very bad. And whether I am at your side or not, you do not travel it alone."

She had always been so lonely, but as she looked up, she realized just how many people were there. There were wolves all around her, her Pack, the ones that she belonged with. Even Seth was there, pulled to her need despite the hurt his body was still healing from. There were vampires too, her parents, the ones that loved her. Two sides, two people that were destined to try and kill the other, tied together by the most tenuous of strings. And one of those strings was her.

"You _do not_ travel it alone, Renesmee," her wolf promised her again. And for the first time in her young and confusing life, Renesmee didn't just hope for acceptance. As her wolf hushed her gently and forced himself to pass her back into her parents' waiting arms, she realized that she already _had_ it. It would take Renesmee a very long time to determine precisely why that realization made the not-so-little girl burst into tears all over again.

It was much easier to understand why the Alpha and the Third had to drag her wolf away.

* * *

The she-wolf stared out of her window, watching the moon travel its way through the sky as she absently rubbed the scabbed up wound on her arm. Behind her a gingerly moving figure leaned against her doorframe.

"Leels?" her brother asked quietly. "Are you okay? Ness didn't drink too much from you, did she?" The she-wolf shook her head silently, and Seth sighed. The Beta stepped behind his Pack's she-wolf and placed his hand on her shoulder, the contact numbing the pull that had been growing stronger every day. "Leah, I know why you were out there tonight, but don't listen to them. Please, just don't listen." Squeezing her shoulder once, her brother shuffled away.

Leah closed her eyes as the moonlight bathed over her face, and she waited until he was in his own room and asleep before whispering, "I love you, Seth."


	19. Chapter 17

**A/N** *sighs at chapter and finally slaps it down* I need to stop picking at this and just post it. This chapter is more of an "extra scenes chapter", wrapping up a few things that needed to be wrapped up, and not my best work. Oh well. Thanks to all my reviewers from last chapter: _Gryffindor Gurl2, First1ThanAnother, Elvira Iula, laurazuleta18, cylobaby, lilred-07, hefors, MargotTenser, shelbron, Ms(dot)Persephone, PumpkinSpiceLatte, moani-sama, Jessica1018, Manna1, hevenlyviki, t(dot)bairdy, EaSofie, 82c10akaLynn, hilja, MadToTheBone1, KerryH, Buffyk0604, Britt01, Aleena Kiwiana, scrapalicious, dirtychicken, QahlanKwaiya, The all mighty and powerfulM, TheNotoriousLIP, Abby576, Hannah Writes R, _and_ chicadee74._

By the way, if you can't stand the concept of child imprints, **THIS WILL BOTHER YOU**. Please listen to this warning. I'm not pulling punches here, so if you can't hang, please stop reading.

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Seventeen

_**The Chehalis River Basin, 1831**_

_Sometime around the turn of the century, Ricardo the Unfortunate Wanderer would finally discover his calling. He would be a _vaquero_, a __cowboy, and a damn good one, if he didn't grow bored of it within a week. _

_Even with the constant companionship of the brindle wolf, Jack, Ricardo had found this New World to be dreadfully dull, and there was only so many times that he and the wolf could journey around the land, poking their noses into everyone else's business before that boredom settled in again. And Ricardo de Vaena, for good or for bad, simply hated to be bored. _

_To be fair, it had taken a while for the boredom to return. The vampire and wolf. They had been an interesting pairing, interesting enough to amuse even one such as Ricardo. Side by side they travelled, not trying to get to know each other on a personal level, but finding that in the passing centuries, that there was no way that they could avoid the process. An uneasy truce had been built between them, an understanding that when the wolf slept, the vampire would not kill him, and when the vampire lowered his mouth to feed from his most recent kill, the wolf would let him feed in peace. _

_Despite being an unfortunate wanderer, Ricardo had retained his impeccable manners, and he made sure that while in the company of the wolf that he ate only from the wildlife surrounding them. Killing of humans was something that Jack would not tolerate, and finding himself alone again was something that Ricardo wasn't sure that __**he**__ could tolerate. _

_The wolf would stay if Ricardo kept his diet restricted. Ricardo would keep his diet restricted if the wolf would stay._

_With that agreement lying silently between them, the wolf and the vampire lived out their adventures, and despite the unnaturalness of it all, Ricardo had found that he had grown to enjoy Jack's companionship more than he had any other creature, with the possible exception of the dearly departed ratly captain. Often the pair would sit in front of their fires, the old wolf smiling his slight smile and Ricardo declaring to the heavens that this life was not the good life, but for a bad life, it was a good one indeed. _

_They had journeyed for a long time, and to many places, but there was one place that Jack had always insisted that they range far away from. A couple centuries into their friendship, Ricardo's curiosity could no longer be assuaged and he had gone poking his nose into that area alone. _

_It had been a bad idea. Although these wolves weren't nearly as capable as Ricardo's companion, there were many of them, and Ricardo scurried his way on out of their territory, glad to have his parts still in one piece. Startled that there were so many others like his companion, Ricardo had went looking to Jack for answers. It hadn't taken much searching before Ricardo had found his friend by the apple tree Jack was so fond of, the one the old wolf kept replanting. While generally willing to listen attentively to Ricardo's tales, this time the wolf seemed to be particularly unimpressed with Ricardo's most recent unfortunate adventure. With disapproval, the wolf had turned his muzzle away._

_It had taken time and coaxing to convince Jack to tell his tale, but when he was through, Ricardo declared a particular disliking for those natives further north. While Ricardo was an inherently lazy fellow, he decided that perhaps one day they would get what was coming to them. After all, it was clear that the white man was going to swallow up this land like a starving dog at a table, and Ricardo wasn't particularly inclined to have sympathy for the losing side. It was fun to watch both European and Native war with each other, and now Ricardo could happily state that he was emotionally invested in the outcome. It had been a long time since Ricardo had been able to enjoy the theatre, and here in this bloody masterpiece of greed and ambition that they called the western territories, the very world was Ricardo's stage._

_The wolf seemed to disagree. _

_Jack disliked the encroaching of the white man, worried what it would mean for the people that had expelled him, although Ricardo wasn't sure why Jack would care. They were outcasts, the two of them. What happened to their native homes was no worry of theirs. _

_But the wolf was growing older, and Ricardo wondered if perhaps Jack's worries were because he was growing _too_ old. A wolf was not a Cold One, as Jack liked to remind Ricardo. Only the Cold Ones were meant to live forever. Once a more active and enthusiastic companion, Jack was spending more and more of his time curled around the apple tree's trunk, and regularly refused to travel along with Ricardo when the vampire grew tired of sitting in the same spot. The rare times he was human, he muttered as if talking to people only he could hear or see, and more often than not, those mutterings were supplicatory in nature. _

_The wolf was slowly losing his mind in being separated from his Pack for so long, and while Ricardo found the process interesting to watch, it occasionally made him feel strangely protective over his friend. It was a protectiveness that grew when one of those Quileute wolves showed up during their rarer travels southwards, snarling angrily at Jack before moving in to kill Ricardo. Ricardo had developed some theories on how to how to best fight a wolf, if forced into the situation that he must do so, but he didn't get the chance. As if possessed by a demon, Jack lost his temper in a way Ricardo had never seen, driving the other wolf away with fang and claw. _

_It was greatly possible that in spending three hundred years with Jack, Ricardo actually had developed a real sort of affection for the wolf. It was clear that in those years, Jack had developed the same for him._

_It was an odd, uncomfortable thing to realize that one was in a somewhat healthy relationship, and Ricardo figured that too much time with apple trees had made him grow soft. It was time to go rediscover himself again. So the vampire travelled down into the more southern parts of the countryside alone, enjoying the fact that the humans had done exactly what he had expected them to. They had gone forth and multiplied, and were doing so with an aggressiveness that Ricardo found heartwarming. The place was growing, changing, a child world gaining its adolescence. No longer did humans kill each other for fishing and hunting grounds, for slaves or land. Now they killed each other just to kill each other, for a spilled drink or a sideways look. _

_Ricardo's child had grown up just how he had hoped it would. He'd make a kingdom of this place yet._

_As he walked the adolescent world, Ricardo found something that interested him more than most, a lifestyle of people that were both Spanish in nature and appealing in their enforced solitude. The _vaquero_, the riders forced to bear their burdens and work alone, eyes knowing and calm beneath their wide brimmed hats. Yes, of course they had hats, what true persona didn't? And as he stalked them near their cattle herds, Ricardo often heard them speaking to themselves and the animals around them._

_Yes. This was a role that Ricardo could play quite perfectly. _

_So Ricardo studied them by way of tying them up and torturing them, forcing them to tell him everything they knew about the cowboy ways. When there was no more they could share, Ricardo cheerfully ate one __vaquero__ after another, and to make sure he remained authentic, he stole from them their boots and their hats and their horses. The cattle, cud chewing mindless creatures that they were, Ricardo lost interest in after only a day. They tasted as boring as they looked, and Ricardo could only handle their incessant noises for so long before wanting to kill them all out of sheer annoyance. _

_The horses however were more clever, seeming determined to throw him like a panther from their backs, and the vampire had quite a hell of a time taming them to accept him as a rider. Quite proudly Ricardo herded his string of acquired livestock back towards the apple tree, delighted to show off his hat and his swagger and his new persona to the one he had spent so long with._

_When Rico the __vaquero__, cowboy and official cool customer, returned to the Hoquiam river lands, Jack was almost dead._

_Something had happened, and something bad. With a curse, because Rico cursed these days much more comfortably, Rico abandoned his possessions and hurried to Jack's side, finding him naked in the dirt, bloody foam in his mouth and his eyes rolled back completely as his body seized. There was no telling how long he had been like that._

_In England, Rico had known those that had suffered from fits, although the peasantry had often feared those afflicted were demon possessed. But unlike them, for Jack the seizure continued, well into the next day. Once the seizing finally stopped, the wolf's body fell limp, nearly dead except for the slow beating of his heart. Rico was tempted to kill his old friend and be done with it, but instead he drew water from the river and forced it and bits of meat down the dying wolf's throat. A wolf's body does not die easily, unless its mind is gone first, and as the days and night passed, Rico continued to care for Jack, forcing the wolf to go on. Perhaps it was too late. _

_"Perhaps you're too old, old friend," Rico admitted as he held the dying wolf's head in his lap. "But I would consider it a favor if you wouldn't mind holding on a while longer. We haven't had a chance to fight again yet. I think I will win this time." _

_Finally an evening came when the world grew cooler and the ancient wolf's eyes opened. They were clouded with pain, and he rolled, retching what little that he had in his belly. Jack began to weep, a terrible, broken sound, his starving body shaking._

_"Jackie boy," the vampire crooned, "Jackie what happened?"_

_"He's gone, he's gone, they're all __**gone**__," the wolf wept, clutching at his head. "T'sikáti's gone. The silence was so terrible, and I tried…I tried to follow him into the spirit world…but the spirits were angry, so angry… I'm so __**sorry**__. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to. __**I didn't mean to**__…" _

_The wolf fell into incoherent babble, and the vampire realized that the man that Jack had once been had finally broken. His Alpha was dead, and his mind cut free of the remaining threads that had held him together. Rico had seen Jack try to speak to his people's spirits before, had seen Jack force himself into fits and fall apart afterwards. Rico wasn't sure he believed in that shaman, spirit world stuff, but he knew his friend lived by it. Apparently Jack had tried to die by it, by forcing a fit that had been nearly unrecoverable in the chasing of a dead man. Rico should just kill him now, and put Jack out of his misery. _

_But then again…dead was boring, and it had been a while since he had watched someone go insane from guilt and grief. Making a decision on the matter, Rico settled down comfortably and patted the ancient wolf's shoulder. The vampire listening to him sob brokenly, Jack's mind shattered and his consciousness pleading for forgiveness. _

_"It's okay, Jackie boy," the vampire promised, relaxing back beneath a dead woman's tree, a tree the wolf would refuse to leave from now on. "It ain't that bad. Give it some time, it'll be okay." _

_As the ancient wolf continued to weep, Rico adjusted his hat over his face and closed his eyes.__ He didn't have any place to go right now anyway. _

* * *

The little girl has grown faster than even she was ready for. As Renesmee stares in her bathroom mirror, the face of a twelve year old stranger stares back at her, and she decides that not knowing oneself is a terrible thing.

For a few trying weeks all she does is drink, forced to hunt with her parents because her thirst is a constant in her life. She hates the killing, the death, the awfulness of it all, and it sends her into a hurt silence that is increasingly harder to pull her out of. As her family prepares for their hunt one day, Renesmee stays on her porch steps, and she cries because she knows she's being bad, but she can't do it anymore. She _won't_ do it anymore, she won't keep killing. The sight of blood sickens what is left of her little broken heart, and she doesn't care if she'll get sick without it. Her family spends hours trying to convince her that her drinking is no different than eating a hamburger, or a piece of chicken.

Renesmee tries to convince them to let her live on ice cream and chocolate chips instead.

Bella calls Jacob and finally admits that they are worried about her. They are going to have to start force feeding her soon. The Alpha shows up a few minutes later with a jug of orange juice and a determined look on his handsome face. Jacob is her Alpha, and one of his imprints needs him. It is a clear problem with a definitive answer, and there's nothing for the Alpha to question or second guess. This is the kind of thing that he can _do_. Renesmee's grandfather has decided that wolf blood helps her the most, so Jacob plops down on a chair, takes a chug of the orange juice, and tells Carlisle to start draining.

The young girl hides up in her room, trying to super glue her broken rock back together and too ashamed to look at her Alpha. When Carlisle is done, and the refrigerator is stocked with transfusion bags that Rosalie has labeled "Mutt Juice", Jacob sticks his head in her room and doesn't even bother to Alpha order her to drink. Instead he frowns at her disapprovingly.

"You're weakening Jack, Nessie," Jake says flatly before he turns to leave. "Weak wolves get killed."

Renesmee gives him a stricken look and then goes downstairs and drinks her fill.

Fresh blood is better than stockpiled blood, and Jacob doesn't mess around when it comes to the health of his imprints, so he shows up every morning before he has to get to school. When Jacob can't come, Paul or Embry does. Seth is too weak, they tell her, and needs to build his strength. Her wolf, however, isn't allowed to come here anymore, so it's up to the others to help her. They don't mind, Paul and Embry are dominant enough to never mind protecting an imprint, but their eyes are angry, and Renesmee hears their silent accusations aimed her parents' ways. But her parents are angry too, offended and concerned about Jack's territorialism, and they aren't letting him near her. Renesmee had always wanted a friend that would always be around, but the brindle wolf doesn't fight them in their wishes.

The young girl stays in her room by herself and keeps a rock tucked in her pocket…There's no use in trying to keep it perfect anymore. Renesmee has already broken it anyways.

She goes back to her contemplations and her thoughts, and her binders start to fill again, but Renesmee is learning that the stranger that took over her face is taking over the insides of her as well. Days of patient work get torn up and thrown away in a fit of frustration completely unlike herself, and later she sits in her bath tub and stares at the bubbles, wondering if they had ever wanted a reigning monarch at all, or if the Bubble Queen was simply a personal affront against a bathtub's quest for democracy.

The young girl closes her eyes and plays pretend, but she's pretending that she was who she used to be. She watches The Clique again and thinks that they at least have friends, if questionable ones, and feels guilty that she's allowing herself to feel sorry for herself. So Renesmee sits down and for the first time tries to write her own poem, but she only ends up regurgitating everything that she has read or seen, and she wonders if creativity is even possible when half of her body is dead to begin with.

Renesmee returns to her studies, but there's a big world out there, and it feels suffocating in here, and the knowledge the she has earned of her Pack and her coven's acceptance of her only reaffirms her lack of acceptance in herself. The young girl sits on her chair, carefully not kicking her feet, and realizes that she's now someone new again, when she had only just started learning who she was. She misses her wolf, but Renesmee understands the concept of breaking the rules, and how actions have consequences. She misses him, but she doesn't think begging to see him will help the situation.

That doesn't mean that she doesn't secretly resent them and Jacob both for keeping her best friend away.

It doesn't seem fair of her to feel like that, and Renesmee is a sweet girl. She doesn't want to let her family know she's becoming angry, so she shoves it down deep and forces her mannerisms to stay polite and serene. Her thoughts fill her head to the bursting point, and she writes and writes and writes those thoughts down on paper, and she color codes them, but the colors don't always stay the same when her thoughts won't stop shifting around. She has looked at them from every different angle and thinks that she's becoming inconsistent, and for the logic minded, the illogical is extremely bothersome. So Renesmee adds extra colors to the color system in an attempt to contain and compartmentalize, but there's too much in her now. She's grown, after all, and she's got more inside of her than before. When the extra colors aren't enough, she adds varying shades.

Her father finds her one night balancing on the headboard of her bed, her thoughts taped to every surface around her. It's three dimensional like this, Renesmee tries to explain as she tapes another thought to the ceiling. She has always looked down at her thoughts, so she thinks it might be interesting to look at them at eyelevel and higher. Perhaps she'll gain more perspective this way.

Renesmee doesn't know why her father looks at her so sadly, or why he gives her a tight hug and tells her he's sorry. He had never known it would be like this. But she still does as he asks and takes them down before her mother sees.

She has backslid, Renesmee hears her mother whisper to Jacob one night. Bella had thought she had been doing so much better, but now thinks that Renesmee is backsliding again. The Alpha thinks the answer to that is simple, if Bella and Edward would just learn to accept it. A few days later, a brindle wolf is found stretched out on the front porch, and he thumps his tail contentedly when she goes down to greet him properly.

Renesmee doesn't realize that she's standing so stiffly, or that she looks so lost and confused. But she does giggle when Jack yawns loudly and scoots around on his belly, and a thousand year old wolf unashamedly begins to gnaw on her shoe laces.

Two destroyed pairs of shoes later, Renesmee realizes that he's just going to keep eating them, so she takes off the last scrap of patent leather and wiggles her bare toes instead. A brindle wolf pretends to fall asleep as a young girl looks out at her yard and once more tries to play pretend. Nothing's coming, so she gets out a book and begins to read.

She only wakes her wolf up to tell him the parts that she finds the most interesting.

Jack obeys her parents' rules and keeps his time restraints and distances until they grudgingly allow him to back into their home completely. Paul and Embry stop coming daily, but Jacob and Seth make a habit of checking on her, and Ksanochka Fedorova and a wolf escort have become a weekly fixture in their home. The older imprint sneakily avoids questions about her dancing from Esme, her fashion preferences from Alice, and what the hell is wrong with her from Rosalie. She makes Renesmee stop calling her by the honorific Fedorova, and just call her Cassie instead. Cassie is who she is now, and who she's okay being. The blonde tells Renesmee that in their own ways, Paul, Collin, and Jack have helped teach her that, even if she's still learning.

Renesmee likes the fact that he wolf has helped someone like Cassie, who seems so much to enjoy helping everyone else. Cassie turns up Renesmee's stereo and makes her jump around and round on her bed, and as Renesmee is giggling that an adult would be so…childish, she decides that dancing with the Swan Princess is just as much fun as she had thought it would be, even though it wasn't quite the way she had once pictured.

Renesmee has stopped drinking human blood altogether, and the wolf blood makes her feel stronger, steadier. She still hates herself for hurting others, but Renesmee realizes that with her Pack, she can drink and not kill them. It makes her feel less badly about the whole thing, so the young girl drinks from her wolf's wrist daily, a few sips and nothing more. The steady diet of wolfblood means that the violent attacks stop happening, even as her body continues to grow so quickly. Her thirst is there, but controlled, and she's able to pull herself away without gorging herself.

She wonders if her drinking disgusts her wolf, wonders if the fact that she's part Cold One is why he never touches her, but when she tries to stop drinking for a few days and grows weak from her hunger, Jack wraps an arm around her to steady her, even as he presses his wrist back to her lips. She decides that it's not that he won't touch her, but that he _can't_ touch her, and tries to find small ways of bumping into his arms and sides. He must realize what she's doing, and he's extremely particular about following the rules, but eventually he stops shifting away and simply allows it.

Perhaps the need for contact isn't completely one-sided, or perhaps he's doing it just to humor her, but Renesmee makes sure to guard her thoughts around her father. She thinks sometimes that her father hates her wolf, but she still hasn't figured out why. Jack has never hurt her. Jack would _never_ hurt her. Renesmee feels that flash of anger again, doesn't know what to do with it, doesn't like that she feels that way but can't stop herself.

Her wolf stops thumping his tail, and watches her with worried eyes instead.

The young girl and the wolf spend their time close to the coven, within the range of her father's mental hearing, but Renesmee keeps wanting to drift away from the ever constant awareness of her family. There is never a moment in her life where someone is not conscious of what she is doing, and because Renesmee is older now, and more aware of herself than ever, she feels the lack of her privacy keenly. Trust is not something easily given, but the steady diet of wolfblood makes her safer, and her parents know she's desperate to find herself, find some sort of normalcy.

She has searched for it in books and poetry and art and science, in herself and in the wisdom of others. There's only one more place to look, so Renesmee takes her designer sundress and her too many thoughts and her bare feet and she goes out into the forest instead.

Her wolf goes with her, a quiet, peaceful shadow at her side. He dresses in the ways of his people long ago, something that she realizes is most comfortable for him. On these walks, Jack speaks to her in only Quileute, brushing his fingers against the cool earth and the crumbling bark and the slowly melting stream, showing her the essence of the thing before teaching her the word for it. It is a confusing and imprecise way to learn, and it doesn't so much take Renesmee's concentration as it does her ability to understand the one teaching her. Her wolf moves slowly, at peace with the world around him, knowing the answers to the questions he's presenting her, and making her struggle to answer those questions without giving her a way to look them up.

She answers in halting Quileute, fighting for the words and ways to express what she's thinking. She can tell him the color of the sky, knows it is ťlópa, blue. But when Jack asks her why the sky wished to be _that_ color when there are so many others, she doesn't know. When she asks him why, he tells her, but she struggles to put his words together logically. He slips into another language every once in a while just to test her, the language of the Makah people, and when she calls him out on it, Renesmee sees pride in his eyes. She begins to look around and ask him why, immersing herself in indecipherable answers. Why the bird? Why the tree? Why this blade of grass? He always tells her. When she touches her fingers to the scars that she knows lie beneath his shirt and asks him why, Renesmee sees that shadow come over his eyes. This thing he will not say.

Around the time the weather breaks, the cold winter air warming into spring, Renesmee finally learns to walk silently.

If someone were to ask her the exact trick of it, she isn't sure that she could sufficiently explain. She has followed her wolf through the woods surrounding her home a hundred times, and a hundred times she has placed her feet upon the ground differently. She has watched his movements, his stride length, his balance…she has analyzed his musculature, his weight distribution, his pacing. She has stared at the arches of his feet, has reflected upon the angle of his toes. She has considered every bit and piece that makes up her wolf's footsteps, but in the end it isn't the bits that make the whole.

One day Renesmee stops watching and starts _walking_ instead. It is not through analysis that this lesson is learned, it is through experience. Experience comes with practice, and practice cannot be accomplished with one's mind, but one's body. Practice makes perfect. Perfect is a vampire trait.

The young girl makes the connection and goes home to her coven, watches them move past her with the fluidity and grace that she had never been able to obtain. She is both human and vampire, but when it comes down to it, Renesmee has always lived among vampires. As much as she would like to be a normal human, she wants to belong among her family more. Her Aunt Rose is beautiful, even more so than Renesmee's mother, and Renesmee sees her aunt open and step through a door in a way that Renesmee has never been able to.

Confident that she knows what she's doing now, Renesmee goes upstairs to her room and stops trying to figure out how to be perfect like her family. Instead she starts to _practice_. After all, she has plenty of doors.

She doesn't understand why her family is discouraged, or why her father and her mother tell her to please just be _herself_ when Renesmee has finally discovered the key to being what she's always wanted to be. She spends hours opening and shutting the door between her room and the hall, and when her father asks her to please stop and find something else to do instead, she waits until she's alone with only her Uncle Emmett. He keeps the television up loud enough to not be disturbed by the squeaking of the door, and Renesmee has oiled it down with WD-40 in any case. Her Aunt Rose keeps lots of that stuff out in the garage.

So Renesmee practices and she practices, and she starts becoming so focused on it that she forgets everything else that she's supposed to be doing. Practice makes perfect and perfect doesn't come with lack of practice.

Her family becomes frustrated with trying to stop her. The hormones increasing in her body are giving her a bit of a rebellious streak, and Renesmee just waits until they are gone to do the same, or asks to go visit Seth or Jacob and ends up practicing more discreetly there. Her Pack are confused and don't understand, and Renesmee doesn't want to hurt their feelings by explaining she wants to be more like their enemies. But she's been opening and shutting her door for over a week when her wolf finally walks into the coven without an invitation or any warning. She's home alone, a rare occurrence but her family is out hunting and within hearing distance of her, and she's been practicing again.

Jack says nothing to her, but he does have a screwdriver in his hand, and he takes down every door in their house that is bound by screws. The rest he just tears off their hinges and leaves stacked nicely in a pile by the now doorless front doorway. Then he leaves, still wordlessly, but he takes the screws with him. Her family doesn't appreciate the cost of repairing their doors and when Bella mentions this to Jacob, the Alpha only chuckles and says that if they'd learn to lighten up a little and let her wolf nearer than arm's length from her, Jack could have _sat_ on her instead.

It's the first time that Jack's ever looked angry at her, but he doesn't speak about it, not until she asks him later if she upset him. His answer is confusing and complex and in Quileute, so she only understands bits and pieces of what he is saying. She picks out the words "imprint" and "Cold Ones" and "never enough". In her spare time, the young girl tries to extrapolate, and only finds herself more confusing than ever. Renesmee has always memorized the words her wolf speaks to her, so she goes to her Alpha and repeats them verbatim, asking what they mean.

Jacob shushes her and tells her that a man's heart isn't to be shared, not even with him.

Ashamed that she has betrayed her wolf's trust, Renesmee asks to go into the woods alone, between the reservation and the coven, so she can have some time to think. Her family are nervous, but her parents know that the young girl is trying to find herself, and they only want her to be happy. A few minutes at a time, Renesmee slips off to be alone. A few minutes truly alone is more than she's ever had, and Renesmee relishes in it, as brief as those minutes can be.

It takes her weeks of "a few minutes alone", but as she sits beneath the shade of the trees surrounding her, Renesmee finally realizes that the only eyes and ears on her out here are her own. With a smile, she squeezes her lids shut and she rises to her feet, finally starting to find the peace that her wolf keeps telling her she can have. There is sadness in loneliness, but serenity in solitude, and it takes her a while to realize what everyone's been trying to tell her all along. The half-vampire and the coven member, the daughter and the student, the imprint and the Packmate…too many things for one little person, so at a loss as to what to do to be, she finally decides to be just Renesmee.

_Just_ Renesmee.

Spring rolls into the budding heat of summer, and Renesmee looks into her mirror. Then she smiles at the face smiling back at her. Just Renesmee. There are more terrible things to be.

* * *

The pencils wouldn't stop breaking.

It was only a couple weeks before final exams and Samantha knew that she had to do well on these tests. Advanced placement physics was not an easy course, but Samantha had signed up for it before she had phased, knowing that with effort and concentration, she could succeed at it. But that was then. This was now. Now her hands wouldn't stop shaking and it was making the pencils break when she tried to hold onto them. Already she had hit Chancy's foot twice with pencil pieces, and the redhead was staring at her in confusion.

Chancy staring at Samantha in confusion was pretty stock standard these days.

The redhead wasn't dumb, and she knew something was up, but it had become quickly obvious that no one, Samantha included, was going to tell her. So Chancy had stopped deliberately asking and had reverted into sneakiness instead, mentally categorizing everything that happened around her. Chancy could often be found lurking about on the reservation, a little pocket notepad in hand as she scribbled down "suspicious activities", not that most of what was in there was anywhere close to the truth. Seth didn't seem to mind, it amused him that Chancy was trying to play games with them, and he made a habit of sending her off on wild goose chases. For several weeks Seth had actually had her half-convinced he was deeply involved in a Native American Mobster Type Organization. He called it NAMTO, feeling very clever about himself.

The redhead had really thought she was on to something, at least until Seth took it too far and started making NAMTO membership cards, and when Seth started forcing the Pack to do secret NAMTO handshakes in front of her, Chancy decided he was a complete freak. As far as Samantha knew, Chancy was still messing around with Seth anyways, but she was always watching them like a hawk.

Samantha didn't mind Chancy watching her like a hawk, but she was starting to draw attention from the rest of the class, too much attention, and Samantha didn't like that. People staring at her just made her want to stare them down right back, and right now she had a test to be taking. Vectors weren't easy, and she really did need to focus. If Jake had been in that class, hell if he's have been in the school it would have been easier. But the Alpha wasn't there, he had run an extra patrol and had overslept this morning, but Jake had already called Collin to check on her. It rankled, but it was stock standard for all newly phased wolves, having someone babysitting them while in school. Unfortunately Jake was the only one in school strong enough to calm her down, but Collin had assured Jake that Samantha was doing well enough today without him.

Except, of course, if she had to hold a damn pencil.

The she-wolf _hated_ that the person she _least_ wanted to depend on was the defining factor in if she could keep herself together these days. But school was hard, unimaginably so. The noises, the smells, the sounds, the way they all stared at each other. It was a breeding ground for trouble, and Samantha could barely keep from snarling at how the barrage of sensations never stopped.

Like the boy behind her tapping his fingers, or the teacher's hair gel, or Chancy's way of exhaling with an annoyed huff every damn time she didn't know the answer…every…damn time…Samantha's last pencil snapped, and with a curse of frustration, she threw the remains on her desk.

"Mr. L, can I go to the bathroom?" Samantha asked, already shoving herself to her feet.

"We are in the middle of a test, Carter," her physics teacher reminded her, but Samantha just nodded curtly and mumbled she'd be right back, stuffing her hands into her jean pockets so that no one could see how badly they were trembling.

Samantha scurried past the sophomore classrooms, knowing that her scent would carry through the closed doors and into her Packmate's nostrils. That was the worst part of it all. She wasn't normal anymore, but on some level Samantha had always assumed that she could pretend that she was normal. But she couldn't. More than the rest of them, _she_ couldn't. The freshly phased always had control issues, had to contain their tempers, needed to watched to make sure that they didn't phase. Yet it had been nearly three months and Samantha couldn't stop her hands from shaking constantly. She couldn't focus, not when she needed to, not even when she tried her hardest. It was as if something had shifted inside of her that left her off-center, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shift that part of herself back.

Samantha Carter had always known that the Huntington's was going to kill her, slowly break down her mind and her body, take away her personality and warp her into someone new. She just had never realized that in being cured, nearly the exact same thing had happened. Only Samantha wasn't her mother. Her mother had died from this, but Samantha…Samantha was going to have to _live_ like this forever.

The she-wolf slipped into the bathroom and exhaled heavily, grateful for the silence of the small but blessedly empty room. Then she went over to the sink, trying not to break the faucet as she turned it on.

Being under running water still brought panic attacks, so Samantha didn't stick her face under the faucet the way she wanted to. Instead she splashed it into her eyes, trying to cool skin that was forever locked ten degrees higher than it should have been. She hated this.

"Seth," Samantha told herself sternly, taking a long deep breath. The young woman bent over the sink in the bathroom, gripping it between her fists, water dripping from her face. "You did this for Seth, and for Leah and Sue and yourself, because it was _Seth_. It's worth it and you'll be okay. You'll get your shit together, and you'll be okay."

However when Samantha raised her eyes to the mirror, she wasn't even sure what was staring out behind her eyes. It was someone, but it wasn't her. How many times had she seen her mother do this very same thing? How many times had Samantha heard her mother whispering to herself that everything was going to be okay?

The door slammed open, and Samantha winced at the sound of the heavy wood door smacking against the wall. A junior swaggered in, giving Samantha a cursory glance before smirking. Samantha wanted to keep her eyes on the mirror, wanted to mind her own business and get back to her test already, but instinct forced her eyes to lock on the other young woman's.

Callie Jennings paused halfway to the first stall and then chuckled, turning around and locking the door behind her, barricading them in and breaking the eye contact between them.

"You look like shit, Carter," Callie stated, dropping her bag on the floor and kicking it over to the wall. Samantha ignored that and splashed some more water on her face, trying not to get lost in the way the drops clung to her skin, dripped off of her nose and lashes, drip drip dripping into the sink.

No wonder she couldn't focus on a test. She could barely stop staring at a sink full of water.

"Hey, whatever you're on, do you have any more of it?" Callie Jennings asked in a quieter voice, settling her hip against the sink next to Samantha's. "Cause you look like shit, but I _feel_ like shit." She looked it too, as much as a girl like her could look it. Callie's skin was pale and she had a bead line of sweat running down her neck, and her hands were shaky as she pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket.

Samantha grimaced and shook her head. "I'm not on anything," she muttered, and Callie snorted.

"_Sure_," she drawled, winking at Samantha knowingly. The younger woman lit up a cigarette and offered it to Samantha, who stared at her flatly in response. Callie shrugged. "Suit yourself, but the nicotine always helps me when I'm coming down. And you, Carter, are coming down from _something_."

The scent of burning tobacco filled Samantha's nostrils and made her nose wrinkle. Strong scents distracted her. When they were good, they made her want to do nothing but inhale over and over again, relishing in the smell. But when they were bad, they made her want to either get away from the scent or drive the scent away from her, forcefully if necessary. Callie must have known that the cigarette was bothering Samantha, because the younger woman inhaled deeply and blew the smoke Samantha's way.

"There was another meeting last night," Callie told her, ashing in the sink. "You didn't come. Your dad was pissed about it."

"My dad hasn't spoken to me since Casey died," Samantha growled back, adding sarcastically, "My invite must have gotten lost in the mail."

Callie shrugged. "And yet he was still pissed you weren't there. Brady put in a good showing, though. Every time my uncle mentioned you going over to the dark side, he made this really funny noise in his throat, kind of like a pitbull whose master was choking it—"

The she-wolf suddenly reached over and plucked Callie's cigarette out from between her teeth. Samantha pinched the burning tip out between her fingertips and then crushed it in her hand. Then she straightened and then stalked forward, deliberately stepping into Callie's personal space. Callie held her ground but flinched when Samantha leaned in closer, their hips bumping as Samantha slipped the ruined cigarette back in Callie's front pocket. Callie took a step backwards and Samantha followed, her mouth next to the taller girl's earlobe as Callie found herself pinned to the sink.

"I don't care if your whole fucked up family tears each other to pieces," she said quietly in Callie's ear, her voice lowering to a dangerous purr. "But _you_ won't do it to _him_ anymore." Callie opened her mouth and Samantha's teeth snapped together. On some level she regretted it, but on another she didn't feel bad in the least.

Of course her Alpha was going to be pissed when he found out she was still biting people.

"You fucking bit me!" Callie snarled, and Samantha shrugged as if it didn't matter.

"I do that sometimes," Samantha admitted, suddenly turning on her heel and striding out of the bathroom. She was embarrassed at the loss of control, but she couldn't help the feeling of vindication rolling through her. Jake kept telling her that she couldn't pick and choose who her Packmates were, and that she needed to protect them all equally, but Samantha had been through too much with Brady. The memories that had been lost to her, memories of the things that had happened to both of them, had resurfaced and those memories had left Samantha deeply protective of him. And only now that her eyes and her ears had been opened did she realize how much the sentiment was reciprocated.

They still hadn't talked about it with each other. Samantha figured that they never would.

Halfway to the classroom, Samantha realized how long she had taken in the restroom, and she cursed when she heard the bell ring, signaling that class was over. She had kept a 4.0 grade average since middle school, and now she was bombing tests left and right. Collin was the first out of his English class down the hallway, and he frowned at her, striding her way when he saw…what did he see? She ducked back into her own classroom, humiliated to realize that Chancy was handing in both of their tests to the suited man standing at his desk. The teacher glared at Samantha, but there was nothing that she could say in her own defense.

"I'm sorry, Mr. L, I just don't feel very well today," she whispered to the teacher, taking her bag from Chancy and slipping towards the back of the classroom. Chancy followed her worriedly.

"Sims, what the hell is going on with you?" Chancy asked, dropping her voice so that the teacher couldn't hear. "You barely had _half_ of that finished and…oh my god, is that _blood_ on your mouth? Did you bite your tongue or something?"

Samantha shouldered her book bag and wiped off her face, smelling her Packmate only a few feet away. Collin was listening to every word, even if he was waiting in the hall outside the classroom. "Don't worry about it," Samantha said, wiping off her mouth and flushing. "Let's just get to lunch, okay?"

"No seriously, are you okay? Your hands are shaking."

It was the worst thing that Chancy could have said, and Samantha snarled in frustration, knowing that before the redhead could blink, Collin would be in the classroom, hovering behind her shoulder and ready to drag her out of the school. Sure enough, the younger wolf's scent filled her nostrils and Collin draped a heavy arm around her shoulders, forearm along Samantha's collarbone as if hugging her in a friendly fashion.

"Heya Chancy," Collin said flirtatiously, winking at Samantha's friend and ignoring Samantha's attempts to mentally gnaw his arm off at the shoulder. "You coming to Seth's this weekend? It's the first Clearwater family fish fry of the spring, and Seth's going to be a pain in the ass if you don't show up."

Mentioning Seth's name was the absolute best way to distract Chancy, and the redhead brightened instantly. "Seth's always a pain in the ass," she joked, only to be cut off by their physics teacher's annoyed voice.

"Carter, Hoblin, this is not social hour, so go away. Somewhere else, _anywhere_ else."

"Feeling the love, Mr. L, feeling the love," Chancy chuckled, grabbing Samantha's arm and tugging her towards the hallway. She grinned at the teacher through the door's small window before herding the other two towards the lunchroom. "That man inspires me more than any other teacher I've ever had. And yes, Collin, as long as Seth doesn't make me gut anything this time, I'll be there."

"Who did you bite?" Collin muttered so softly that the redhead couldn't hear, but Samantha didn't answer. However behind them in the hall someone made a yelping sound. Always on the lookout for some interesting gossip, Chancy turned and walked backwards, peering over Samantha's shoulder.

"Oh shit, look at Callie," Chancy said, eyes widening. "She's got blood all over her neck."

Collin gave Samantha a look of consternation, and she sighed. "It wasn't that bad," Samantha muttered back, and she smiled slightly as they passed Brady.

The young wolf was leaning against the locker next to Kim's sister, Nikki, and he was nodding at something that the freshman had said. Nikki's cheeks were pink, as if shy to have Brady there. Samantha couldn't help notice that Brady was politely holding Nikki's book bag while Nikki rifled for something deep in her locker, and that the freshman was chewing on her lower lip nervously. Samantha wondered what Nikki would say if she knew Brady was trying very hard not to get caught staring at her chest. The Connwellers grew them well, apparently.

"Why are you checking out Nikki Connweller?" Collin snickered, making Samantha roll her eyes when he added, "_You know_, Sims, if you've hopped the fence and need someone to be there when you tell Emb, I'm perfectly willing—".

Samantha paused mid-step and then aimed a feral grin at Collin, her voice rising in volume. "_You know_ Collin, if Embry and I weren't together, I _would_ have sex with you. But don't you still have crabs from that Mexican prostitute?"

A wolf down the hall coughed loudly to cover his laugh, but Collin just stared at her in consternation before suddenly growling. "Are you ever going to let me live that shit down? I do not have crabs!" He looked at the wide-eyed students around them. "_I don't!_"

"Yeah, yeah, but with your track record, you probably have something," Chancy dismissed, flapping her hand at Collin. "Wow, Callie's bleeding like a stuck pig."

"I'm sure it's just a flesh wound, it's not like a she-wolf bit her or anything," Collin replied with a snort. He rolled his eyes at Brady over Nikki's back as the freshman stuck her head into her locker. Brady grimaced and gave Samantha a resigned look before turning to see just how bad his cousin was hurt, just at the exact same time a senior decided to shove his friend across the hall, tripping up two others and sending all three falling sideways.

The thing about being a wolf was that they could see things as they happened so much more clearly, almost as if they were happening in slow motion. That didn't mean that they could always _do_ anything about it in time, because Brady might have sensed someone coming his and Nikki's way, but he only managed to grab a hold of two of them. The third, a poor clumsy freshman who had been feeling really badly for several days now, grabbed Nikki's open locker door for support, but his weight accidently slammed the door into Nikki's head.

Nikki's yelp of surprise and pain was all it took to make Brady lose it.

"Oh shit," Collin breathed before launching himself at his friend, leaving Samantha to stare in shock as Brady shoved the two he had caught away. Face a mask of rage, Brady lunged at Owen, who had realized what he had done and was desperately trying to find out if Nikki was okay.

Collin collided with Brady just in time to keep Owen's head on his shoulders, and the dominant wolf managed to force Brady away from Owen before Brady had a chance to actually hit the kid. Collin took that hit instead and snarled, shoving Brady into the opposite wall aggressively. Jake had set down rules about interPack fighting, and for them, this wasn't fighting. Fighting was shattering jaws and crushing noses and ripping each other apart with fang and claw. Collin slamming Brady into the opposite wall and getting clocked in the temple for it wasn't so much fighting as it was damage control.

Chancy grabbed Samantha's arm and hissed, "Oh my god, why are _they_ fighting?"

"They aren't," Samantha snapped back, shoving Chancy sideways. "Mr. L's coming with the Principal, go distract them."

"_Seriously_?"

"Do it, Chancy! Flash them or something."

Let it never be said that Chancy Hoblin wouldn't show her chest for the good of mankind, and while Mr. L got an eyeful, Collin got a second fist in his face. Collin was a better fighter in wolf form, but Brady was a scrapper and as such was a far better at fighting his way free than Collin would ever be. A third jab made Collin instinctive flinch back, and Brady had wrestled his way lose. With a bellow he flung himself at Owen.

Owen, who needed to be protected.

Something clicked inside Samantha, and she stepped forward between the two young men. Stopping Brady was easy. Stopping Brady without accidentally hurting him or anyone else was harder, so she resisted the urge to strike him and put her shoulder into his torso instead, digging in her feet and thinking that she had this.

Brady was a hell of a lot stronger than Samantha had given him credit for.

When he bowled into her, Samantha lost her balance and ended up falling against the lockers. Even with Brady, she didn't like being trapped, couldn't handle it, and when his momentum knocked her down to the floor against the lockers, now Samantha was the one that had lost it. Shaking and snarling as another wolf stumbled and fell on top of her, his weight pinning her down. Striking at him wildly to just get him off of her.

Getoffgetoffgetoff_getoffofher!_

And then Brady was off of her, her panicked cries cutting through his anger, and he stared at Samantha in horror before glaring at Owen furiously, as if Brady's loss of control was all the younger kid's fault. Nikki was watching him wide-eyed, and Brady snarled, turning and leaving Samantha alone. It didn't matter that Collin was still there, because Brady had left her here alone. Left her alone in a hallway full of strangers, people whose faces were familiar but who would never know her. Their silence was deafening. She couldn't stare at them all, not without this going from bad to worse, so she put her head between her knees and stared at the floor instead. She was fine. She was fine. _She was fine, dammit_.

Even Collin looked confused and uncertain, but then he glared at the students and bellowed belligerently, "What the hell are you all looking at?" As Chancy decided that now would be a good time to hide her assets and run away, Collin knelt down next to Samantha and touched her trembling arm. "Sims, are you okay? _Sims_?"

She was fine. She was _fine_. Everything was going to be perfectly okay.

* * *

"Have you completely lost your fucking mind, Jake?" Leah snarled pacing around the Alpha's bedroom furiously. Jake was sprawled out on his bed in a pair of boxer shorts, eyes blinking sleepily. The she-wolf had burst into his room only a few minutes ago, and Jake was usually slow in his waking. An irate Leah tended to make him wake up faster, but that still wasn't particularly speedy.

"Maybe the change of scenery will do her good," he yawned, stretching his arms above his head and hearing the bones in his shoulders crack.

Leah kicked Jack's footboard, making another cracking sound, and she gave him a frustrated look. "She _lost_ it in school yesterday. Collin said she was muttering like a lunatic after Brady fell on top of her. If she can't even get through the day in class, then there's no way you should take her with you. You need someone that you can rely on, one that can get your back, and she's not ready for that."

"I'm not going to a fight, Lee-lee," Jake said confidently. "I've spent months hashing out this treaty with Juneau. All this is, is a shake hands and seal the deal kind of thing. He's bringing his mate and I'm bringing my imprint, who happens to be mated to my brother. Or maybe to my wolf. Or something. I still haven't figured out how all of that works, and no one's felt interested in explaining it to me yet. By the way, tell Collin and Brady to start shadowing that Owen kid Brady tried to kill. I looked at him yesterday and I think he's going to phase any day now."

Leah blinked at that and then narrowed her eyes, unwilling to be distracted by the idea of a possible new Packmate. "Take someone else," Leah growled, and the Alpha smiled sexily.

"Someone like you?" Jake chuckled. "If you want to be my mate, Leah, all you have to do is tell me. I've got an opening in that department and Quil's already spoken for." The Alpha stretched again under her gaze, and he kicked one heel up on the now cracked footboard, smirking. "Your glares don't scare me, honey, but feel free to glare away. You look cute when you're pissed."

Leah let out a string of curse words so vile that even Jake blinked, and then he frowned, sitting up. "You really are worried, aren't you?"

"You _need_ someone to have your back," Leah spit out angrily, pausing by the side of the bed. "If you were Embry, if you were Seth or myself, if you were Brady, then yeah. She'd be a good one to go with, but she has _no loyalty_ to you, Jake."

The Alpha sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "Leah, she may not like me, hell she may not even trust me, but Samantha's not going to be disloyal. She'll have my back, I know she will."

"You don't _know_ anything!" Leah exploded, throwing up her arms. "Hell, Jake _I _don't know what she's going to do half the time anymore. Why are you being so fucking stupid about this? Take someone else, take anyone else, but don't take her."

The Alpha rolled off of the bed to his feet and took Leah by the shoulders. "Calm down," he told her quietly, his voice a low soothing rumble, and Leah punched him in the jaw. Jake grunted and then popped his jaw back into place. "Okay, _please_ calm down?"

"Take me instead."

"No."

"_Why_?"

Jake sighed and let his hands slide down her sides, gripping her waist loosely. "Because I need you here, Lee-lee," he said quietly. "I don't like how Seth's healed, his senses are off, and he's still sore after phasing. Paul does his best, but he's distracted by Cassie. Embry's falling apart all over again. Right now if shit went down when I was gone, it's you and Paul running things. If I take you, I'm leaving Paul with too much on his shoulders. Neel's still out there, and I need you and Paul to protect my Pack. I'm leaving you with every able bodied wolf I have, and I'm taking the one wolf that isn't ready to get into a fight if a leech breaks the borders."

Leah shuddered at that, grinding her teeth furiously and her hands clenched into fists. "If something happens to you…"

"Then it happens," Jake admitted ruefully, shifting closer to the stiff bodied she-wolf. "But this treaty is important, and I need to know I'm strengthening our Pack for once, instead of breaking it down even more. Between you and Seth and Paul, I think that you all can do this without me. I'll only be gone a day. I know you hate being left behind but I need this from you. You're too important, Lee-lee."

"And you're imprint's not?" Leah shot back, making Jake frown. His eyes had been drifting towards her mouth, but they rose back to her eyes again. "You know the one person you're supposed to protect, you have no problem throwing to the wolves. But I don't need protecting and you keep me here like I'm a fucking prisoner."

The Alpha's frown deepened. "That's not fair."

"No, Jake," Leah growled back. "It really fucking isn't."

Leah twisted to go, but Jake caught her arm, bringing her back. The Alpha leaned down, his nose close to her ear. "What do you want me to say? You know what's out there, you know how much it worries me. You're the last person I want fighting by my side, because you have the most to lose if something does happen to me. I don't care how angry you are at me, I'm not risking that for you."

"Sims—"

"Is not being pulled by any of the other Alphas, Leah," Jake told her stubbornly. "Either she's immune or she's broken. Either of which makes it safer to take her to meet a strange Alpha than you. I know you don't agree with me here, but trust me. Please, just trust me."

Leah growled unhappily, but when Jake shifted closer, she didn't move away. Jake's fingers threaded through her hair and he tipped her head back. Leah hesitated a moment and then moved into Jake's form, pressing her lips to his lightly. For a moment his mouth stayed gentle on hers, but when he started to deepen the kiss, she pulled away. Jake let her go immediately, but Leah could see the hurt in his eyes.

"Leah?" Jake asked softly. "What more is it that you want? What am I not doing?"

The she-wolf shook her head, weighing her words carefully. "You're a masochist, Jake. You take care of us, but you don't care if you live or die, and you don't care if you take Samantha down right along with you. You trap the rest of the imprints like they are precious commodities that you can't let out of your sight, but your own? You just use her. You're supposed to love her, but you don't, because you're in love with someone else. And since we both know you don't love _me_ either, that really only leaves one other option."

"Leah," Jake growled warningly, and Leah stood up straighter.

"You know what pisses me off about it all, Jake?" Leah said flatly. "That I actually do care about you. I have for a while, but I'm not going to sit around and beg for a leech's dinner scraps. I'm worth more than that. I broke my heart for too long pining over Sam, and I'm not going to do the same shit over you. I'm sorry. I care about you, Jake, but I don't _want_ you, and I'm tired of staying in your cage."

Leah turned and walked to the doorway, but halfway through she paused. "And you should take someone else. She's not ready."

Jake watched her go, as always, saying nothing.

* * *

Pier 57 was crowded, the way it always was on a Saturday. The way the Alphas figured this was either a very good thing or a very bad thing. They would have to wait and see.

Jake's motorcycle rumbled loudly as it pulled up to the pier, and several people stopped to stare as the massive wolf cut the engine. From where she was seated behind him, Samantha unfastened her helmet and stuck it under her arm. Seattle was a lot closer to La Push then it was Juneau, but that was one of the particulars that Jake and the Juneau Alpha Xáxi had taken so long to argue over. Jake had learned his lesson well and flat out refused to go further than that from his Pack in case they needed him. There was a kid named Owen, a kid that Brady had taken a particularly harsh disliking of, that Jake was pretty sure would phase anytime soon. Throw in the leech that had been making their lives hell, and Calgary a not-exactly friendly Pack looming just beyond the border, and Jake wasn't budging. He wasn't going anywhere that he couldn't get back to La Push before the Calgary Pack could get there.

If Xáxi needed to meet to finalize their arrangement, then the Juneau Alpha was going to have to come to Jake.

The Alpha lifted his nose up into the air and inhaled deeply. "Do you smell that?" he asked in a low voice meant to carry only to her, and Samantha took a quick sniff.

"Popcorn, seafood, suntan lotion," she murmured back quietly. "Hotdogs and car exhaust. I can't smell anything else."

"That's why Paul got caught off of his guard here," Jake explained, his body language telling her that they should get off the bike. Carefully Samantha did so, breathing deeper. "Don't rely on your nose," the Alpha added in an even softer voice. "If they're downwind you'll feel them before you smell them."

"Everyone's looking at us," Samantha muttered, locking eyes with a young couple that immediately dropped their heads and scurried past. "It bothers me."

The Alpha tucked his keys in his pocket, adjusting his sunglasses before standing up and swinging his leg over. "You haven't been around this many people since you phased. It takes some getting used to."

Samantha nodded and continued scanning the crowds. "I don't like this, Jake," she told him. "It feels off."

Jake let his eyes sweep over her briefly, taking in the way she was holding herself, the hand that rested idly on the wolf tooth case tucked in the back of her jeans. Then he smiled slightly, stepping in closer and using the pretense of zipping up her jacket to cover his barely audible words. "That's because it _is_ off. You have an Alpha watching you right now and if the rest of my wolves' reactions are any indication, that's the most uncomfortable thing you'll ever feel. Don't worry."

"Do I look worried?" she asked, arching an eyebrow, and Jake chuckled.

The Alpha smoothed his hands over her shoulders, briefly adjusting her jacket before letting go, and Samantha decided that to anyone else they would like lovers or close friends. Neither of which was the case, but there was something to be said about standing next to someone that you knew could hold their own. "Not particularly, but you feel worried. I take it Leah talked to you before we left?"

"She made some valid points," Samantha admitted, cocking her head to the side so that she could listen better. "And she threatened to eat me if I got you hurt. Don't look so smug, she threatened to eat you if you got me hurt, so we both win. I think we're being flanked right now."

"Of course we are," Jake smiled at her, but Samantha could see the hardness growing in his eyes. "Let them, I know our strengths. Here's the rules, Apple Girl. Don't force what you can't back up, and don't let them push you around at all. If we fight, you fight human. If I think you're going to phase, I'm tossing you in the water. There're too many people here otherwise."

Samantha nodded and then she met Jake's eyes. "She's wrong, you know. I do have your back. You're Embry's brother, Jake, and that means I'll protect you."

His smile tightened but he nodded. "That's something. Don't be offended if I don't introduce you. Jack warned me that he won't introduce his mate, and I'm playing by the rules today."

"You never play by the rules," Samantha muttered, and Jake chuckled, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the scent of wolf in Samantha's nose. It was instinctive, the way Jake's chest bowed up, and she realized through the imprint bond that for the briefest of seconds that Jake had wanted nothing more than to phase. His hands tightened on her hips briefly and then he let go.

Suddenly it was clear to Samantha why she was there. She was Jake's buffer. He wasn't worried about this Alpha hurting him, Jake was worried about himself hurting this other Alpha through instinctive territorialism. Jake wanted his imprint there to help calm himself. Samantha wasn't sure whether or not to feel disappointed about his not needing her to guard his back, to feel pissed that he had dragged her all the way up here just to use her, or to feel nothing at all. She chose instead to feel nothing at all.

Samantha was starting to get used to the way that she and Jake used each other. At least she knew where she stood with him.

If it weren't for the fact that both Jake and Samantha had felt themselves being cornered, they might have never known the pair was closing in on them. The sounds and smells and crowds on the pier were enough to hide their arrival as both the Juneau Alpha and his mate appeared on opposite sides of Jake and Samantha. It was a strategic move used when hunting one's prey. Samantha dug in her feet, feeling herself begin to bristle, but Jake simply stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned back against his bike nonchalantly, waiting until the other two were within a few feet before straightening and turning towards the pier. He started walking, Samantha keeping pace next to him, and she couldn't tell if his hand on her lower back was meant as protection or an attempt at calming her. Jake sure seemed calm, relaxed and steady, and he seemed quite content to allow Juneau to dictate where this meeting would be held.

Either Jacob Black was completely confident in their ability to handle these other Packleaders, or he had one hell of a poker face.

"I am glad you came, La Push," Xáxi greeted them in his raspy voice as he stared straight ahead, not turning to look at Jake as they walked. The Juneau pair seemed to be herding them towards a place that they had picked out ahead of time, a spot to the side of the pier where the crowd was a little thinner.

Jake's eyes slid over this other Alpha naturally sizing him up. This was the wolf who had caused his Pack so much trouble. He was of smaller stature, more compact like Jack was and that alone gave away his age. It didn't go past Jake's notice though that while the Juneau Alpha appeared relaxed, he was slightly distracted. His body was positioned in such a way that he could move quickly if needed, and it was apparent that half of his attention was on his mate, the female flanking Samantha. Which was odd, seeing that Jake was the biggest threat to this Alpha.

"I appreciate you coming the greater distance," Jake replied amiably, and his pull on Samantha was so slight that even she barely felt it. Oh yes, Jake was using her right now to steady himself and his natural aggressiveness. She wondered how calm he would be if he had brought Leah or someone else, and when the pull became constant, if soft, she knew that Jake had made a smart decision.

Probably. Using her to steady himself was unsteadying her, and Samantha knew exactly how unsteady she was these days.

Reaching the spot secluded enough to give the group at least an attempt at privacy, Samantha gave the Juneau female who had flanked her a once over. But the Juneau female wasn't even looking at Samantha, but rather had her eyes on Jake and Jake alone. So Samantha took her time examining this Alpha's mate.

The Juneau female was built like Leah, tall and lean, her body made for strength and speed, but that didn't worry Samantha. What did set Samantha slightly on edge though was the fact that the Juneau female smelled of wolf and her Alpha but something else that Samantha couldn't quite place. The Juneau female had been looking at Jake with curiosity, but Samantha's evaluation eventually caught her attention. The other female attempted to give the she-wolf a small friendly smile, but something was still..._off_ about her. Extremely off. Especially when every time a person came too close or brushed past her, her nostrils would flare and her eyes were flicker away and back, like she was fighting to keep her focus.

When sparring, Samantha had always hung back and let her opponents make the first move. So maybe it wasn't wolf instinct, and just natural instinct that made Samantha want to force this other female into showing her true nature, the desire to have the upper hand. Whatever the reason, when the Juneau female began to open her mouth to speak, Samantha completely ignored her, pulling out her wolftooth and flipping it casually in her hand.

Juneau remained in place, but her eyes flashed at the snub. Eyes that now regarded Samantha unblinkingly.

Both Alphas noticed the exchange, but they focused on each other instead, squaring off and making sure that there was at least ten feet between them. Samantha shifted away from Jake, causing him to smile slightly. If it was about posturing, she was making her point clear. Neither La Push Alpha needed each other for protection. Juneau's female started to do the same and Xáxi gave her an irritated look at her attempt to distance herself from him. When the Juneau female still kept her distance, her Alpha let out a low warning growl meant only for her. She responded in kind, but eventually did as he wished and took half a step closer to him.

"Here's what we need," the Juneau Alpha said gruffly, not bothering with any more niceties. "No passing through or near Juneau territory without fair warning. By fair warning, I mean you will call me, or send one wolf to ask permission prior to entrance. No more than three wolves passing through at any time, unless I've already agreed."

Jake nodded but allowed the older Alpha to continue uninterrupted.

"If I agree," Xáxi informed Jake, "Then they can pass through the territory, but escorted. I'll have two wolves to every one of yours, La Push. And if your wolves want to go into Alaska again for work, even if they fly up there, we need to know when and where and for how long. I won't take away one's right to feed his family, but it's our territory. We don't like strange wolves nearby, and we've learned to guard ourselves closely."

Suddenly Xáxi flashed a fierce, feral grin at the younger Alpha. "The previous Calgary Alpha taught us to do so. Apparently he should have guarded himself more carefully as well."

"He damaged my Pack," Jake said coolly. "He got what he deserved. I'm not particularly fond of people that cause my Pack damage."

Juneau's mate broke her eyeing of Samantha, eyeing that had become much more intent with the longer Samantha ignored her, and looked pointedly at him. Xáxi coughed uncomfortably and then muttered, "It is regretful that we did not make this treaty sooner, La Push."

"I'll translate that into 'Sorry I got two of your people, and nearly a third killed,'" Jake replied in a hard voice, and Samantha shook her head, twirling the wolf tooth around her fingers.

"You don't know that he did," Samantha said simply, and then she eyed Xáxi for the briefest of moments. "But _you_ don't know you didn't. The point is moot. Unless we're planning on killing each other instead of reaching a treaty today, it doesn't matter what either of you say. It doesn't bring either one of them back, and Seth's healing. It's the _leech_ that killed Shane and Casey, and hurt Seth. It'd be more productive to kill him instead."

Jake grunted and when he crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly, Samantha shrugged and fell silent, continuing to ignore Juneau and his mate as if they were inconsequential. Juneau's mate's eyes stayed locked on her, though, and Samantha privately thought that the way she hadn't blinked at all was freaky.

Juneau grunted and then sighed tiredly. "I don't like people getting killed, La Push, especially not Quileute people. But I will protect what is mine and what needs protecting," Xáxi added in a voice that sounded worn down, as if the weight of leadership had burdened his shoulders for a very long time. "Tell your wolf that his brother is kin to our Pack, as is every Quileute that is still living. We would never deliberately cost the life of one of our own. If he wishes to claim fault, it is his right."

"No fucking way I'm letting Jared anywhere near you, or you near him," Jake replied flatly and Xáxi nodded as if that was only to be expected. The younger Alpha sighed. "She's right, it won't take anything back. We need to just make sure this doesn't happen again, Juneau."

Juneau's mate shifted, drawing Samantha's attention briefly, and Samantha locked eyes challengingly with the other female, continuing to roll the tooth over her fingers. This drew Xáxi's attention, although the other wolf respectfully kept his eyes on Jake only. Samantha smirked and held the other female's gaze, noticing that she had cocked her head slightly to the side and that the friendly smile that had been on her face was now gone.

Realizing that the two were starting to stare each other down, Jake cleared his throat. "Anyways, we've already gone through all of this, but just to be clear. We'll extend the same courtesy of passage to your wolves, but once you come as far south as Seattle, we need a call. I'll have my wolves escort yours as far as the borderlines, but La Push is off limits until we know you better."

"La Push will always be off limits to us," Xáxi replied quietly, and Jake frowned.

"Yeah, someone filled Jack's head with that shit too," Jake replied. His eyes narrowed as he regarded the Juneau Alpha. "Do you acknowledge me as Tlokwali, Xáxi?"

The Juneau Alpha's head snapped up, and his eyes widened in surprise at the question. After a moment of silence, Xáxi nodded. "Yes, La Push. You are Tlokwali, as are all the wolves under you but one."

"Do you acknowledge me as Tlokwali, Xáxi?" Jake repeated, and Juneau's eyes narrowed in turn.

"Yes, La Push," he said, looking suspicious.

Jake smiled grimly. "Then that's all you need to concern yourself with. La Push is mine and I'll determine who is allowed there or not. It's not up to you. Anyways, the land between La Push, Forks, and Hoquiam is off limits unless I say otherwise. I'm not having my wolf hassled by any of the rest of you other Packs anymore, and I'm not having our vampire allies suffering the same. Turning on or refusing aid to either the Cullens or Jack is grounds for the treaty being ended. Similarly, we will not turn on or refuse aid to you or your allies. Agreed?"

Juneau was quiet, obviously giving this the consideration it was due. Considering that Juneau's allies were few and far between, they held the bigger risk here. But La Push had slightly greater numbers and an Alpha boosted by two she-wolves, not just one. Plus, Jake was strong enough to have killed Calgary, and from what Jake had told Samantha, that made Juneau wary. To be honest, Samantha wasn't sure how much of this was because Juneau wanted an ally and how much was him just not wanting an enemy in Jake after the Christmas affair.

"I agree, La Push."

Jake exhaled, as if the agreement to the treaty had lifted a weight off of his shoulders. "Good," he said, half to himself. "Finally."

Xáxi didn't reply, but he did put his hand to his mate's waist, unconsciously touching her as his body language relaxed a little. For the first time since the beginning of the meeting, Jake glanced over at the female at Juneau's side. "She's not a she-wolf," Jake mentioned curiously.

"No, she isn't," Xáxi replied in his raspy voice, but Samantha could hear the defensiveness strengthening his tone. Juneau didn't seem to like having his mate draw another Alpha's attention. Respectfully, Jake returned his gaze to the other Alpha.

Jake's forehead creased as his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Is she—?"

"She is Pack," Xáxi growled dangerously. "And that is all that matters. We both know what we run with, La Push. Leave it at that.

"Suit yourself," Jake shrugged, "But calling my wolf a kadidu is rather hypocritical, don't you think? She—"

Juneau's mate echoed his growl as she turned dangerous eyes onto Jake. "_She_ would appreciate it if _she_ were spoken of as if _she_ were actually here."

Silent up until now, Samantha suddenly gave the other female a feral grin. "When you count as being here, we will," Samantha promised her. The imprint's words were met by a pair of snarls, one low and raspy and the other higher but equally dangerous. Samantha snapped her teeth at Juneau's mate just because she could, and as if the physical threat had been all of the encouragement the other female needed. With a louder snarl of rage, the female lunged for Samantha, but her Alpha caught her halfway across the distance between them.

As she continued to stand easily and play with her tooth, Samantha grinned over at Jake. "And you thought _my_ control was bad."

"Watch your Packmate or I'll watch her _for_ you," Xáxi snapped threateningly, his hand closing down on his own mate's neck to force her into calmness. The people passing by were giving them all a wide berth, but the four were paying more attention to each other instead.

"Don't mind her," Jake said cheerfully as the other Alpha struggled to restrain his mate from attacking Samantha again. "She's genetically pre-dispositioned to be crazy." Samantha snarled at his comment, but Jake just smirked and continued speaking to Xáxi. "But I would suggest watching _your_ Packmate, Juneau. Mine took on a wolfborn freshly phased, and can put all three of our asses in the dirt when she has a mind to. Better wrap this up, don't you think?

Xaxi frowned, relaxing slightly as his mate sucked in a tight breath and then suddenly went very very still. His arm however stayed locked around her waist. "You have no control over your she-wolves," Juneau growled, glaring viciously at Samantha and Jake shrugged.

"I'm not over two hundred years old," the younger Alpha reasoned. "I'm trying things a different, more democratic way." Then his voice dropped to a soft, deceptively reasonable tone. "Of course that doesn't mean I won't break every fucking bone in both of your bodies if you don't stop looking at her, Juneau. Eyes on me."

It was clear that it was an order, and it was also clear that Juneau had put himself in a bad position. Jake had kept his eyes mostly to himself, but Juneau was staring at Samantha threateningly, and courtesy meant that his eyes needed to be on Jake. However to do so would be to accept an order from another Alpha, and it was obvious that Juneau had no intention of doing such a thing.

Juneau's mate finally growled and solved the problem for her Alpha by reaching up and covering his eyes with her hand. Xáxi grunted, jerking his head back so that he wasn't blinded in the presence of another Alpha, but she had already dropped her hand. She stared unblinkingly at Jake this time, just as she had with Samantha, and then she tipped her head to the side and back again. "I don't like you," she decided as her Alpha stared resolutely at the spot between Jake and Samantha's shoulders.

"Give it a few weeks," Jake chuckled, shifting sideways to put himself in Juneau's line of sight. "I'm sure I'll look delicious."

"I'm sure your idea of delicious and my idea of delicious are two completely different things," Juneau's mate replied, flashing Jake a smile that bared all of her teeth. Jake blinked and then coughed.

"Yes, well, okay…Juneau, are we done here?"

Xáxi's face was grim as he stepped forward. "I'm not so certain about you, La Push," the Juneau Alpha admitted in his raspy voice. "You've been stomping through the lands these last few years like a wild boar, and I don't trust that you won't end up tearing your Pack and anyone else that sides with you to shreds by the time you're done."

The older wolf grimaced and then glanced at Jake. "But you have potential, pup, and you ridded my Pack of our most dangerous advisory. I would rather part on the same side as you than on the opposite one. We have…been on our own side for a very long time now."

Jake nodded acceptance at that, and Samantha could see that the honesty had cost the Juneau Alpha. So it didn't surprise her when Jake stepped forward and clasped a hand to Xáxi's upper arm.

"Our people aren't made to be separated, brother," Jake replied softly in Quileute. "I appreciate you and your mate coming here. If you and yours are in need, then we will come to your aid. Give my greetings to your Pack and your she-wolf back in Juneau and tell them that they will not find enemies in us unless we are treated as such to begin with."

The Juneau Alpha seemed pleased at Jake's words, and he returned the arm clasp before dropping back a few paces. Suddenly the older wolf's eyes brightened.

"Oh, and one other thing," Xáxi said with a bit of a smile playing around his lips. "My she-wolf wanted me to give you a message. She has no interest in you or yours, La Push. Keep pulling on her, and she'll have me return the favor to your matured female. You can keep this one, my mate would eat her heart before the month was up, but the other is welcome to run in our Pack whenever she so chooses."

And with that Juneau turned and left, drawing his mate to his side and disappearing into the crowds.

Jake and Samantha watched them go silently. Finally the she-wolf turned to the Alpha.

"Good to know where we stand in the scheme of things," Samantha said with a snort, shaking her head as she tucked her tooth back into her jeans. She wandered over to the heavy wooden pier railing, Jake trailing after her. When the massive Alpha leaned against the railing next to her, Samantha glanced curiously at Jake. "Do you think she could really have eaten my heart out?"

The Alpha chuckled and draped an arm around her shoulders, gazing out at the water. "Naw. It would have been a co-eating. You know, when there's not a risk of death or dismemberment by wolf attack, this place is pretty cool, huh?"

Samantha nodded and the two stood there together companionably. For about thirty seconds. "Jacob Black? I'm dating your brother. Get your arm off of me."

"Yeah, yeah, don't flatter yourself, Samantha Carter," Jake chuckled, dropping his arm and giving her a teasing little shove down the pier. "You know you're buying me lunch, right? Supposedly there's this seafood place here that has these little mallets…"

* * *

It was almost summer, the spring showers warming to a heavier muggier heat, when Seth and his friend Chancy came to pick Renesmee up for Paul's wedding.

It was Paul's wedding, and not Cassie's wedding because Cassie still didn't know about it yet. When Chancy grew confused and asked if Renesmee had had a growth spurt, she had politely answered as Seth had instructed her, although she wasn't sure what 'naming toes' had to do with anything growth related. When Chancy had huffed and smacked Seth over the head, heading back to Seth's car and muttering to herself, Renesmee politely did as her Uncle Emmett had suggested and requested five dollars from the Beta for services rendered.

As he paid up, the Beta found that to be _highly_ amusing.

Renesmee had never been to a wedding before, even if it was a surprise wedding. Since even her Aunt Alice wasn't sure exactly the proper attire to wear to a surprise wedding, the young girl had to settle on a something formal and pretty and green. The young girl really was starting to prefer the color green, perhaps because it reminded her of the forest, which was quickly becoming her favorite place to be.

It was a nice wedding as weddings went, and Renesmee thought that it was particularly pretty that they held it by the ocean shore right at dusk. Even though her wolf was patrolling during most of it, and Paul had insisted that everyone there be spread out and standing in a way that made it hard to see, Renesmee enjoyed the fact that she was with her Pack and that they were so excited. Embry and Quil were also patrolling, and Jake, Jared, and Collin were in the wedding party, but Seth kept whispering jokes to Renesmee to try and make her break her polite quietness and start giggling. When the music began playing, Sam hoisted Renesmee up onto his shoulder, just so Renesmee could see Cassie's startled face when the bride realized she was getting married today.

When the tiny blonde imprint walked down her non-aisle through the sand, holding onto the arm of a man that Renesmee didn't recognize, Renesmee couldn't help but smile at the full grin that had come to the other imprint's face. Despite watery eyes, Cassie looked very happy. Renesmee had always thought that the Third's imprint was a very nice person, but sometimes she had seemed sad in a way that Renesmee's own wolf had seemed sad in. It was nice to see her Packmate beaming up at Paul, and Paul watching her with that soft look in his eyes that he only got for her.

As Renesmee perched up on Sam's shoulder and tried to make sure she didn't break Surprise Wedding Proper Procedure and Protocol, the Alpha looked over at her. Jacob looked very handsome that day in his suit and tie, and when he caught her eye and winked at her, it caused Renesmee to feel a wash of sudden embarrassment, but this was a different kind than she was used to. Blushing deeply and not really sure why, Renesmee smiled back shyly.

"He does that to the better half of the female population, kid," Leah muttered out of the corner of her mouth, her voice low enough that only Sam, Seth, and Renesmee could hear. "Don't let him know it, he'll use it against you forever."

"I'm not sure what you mean, Leah," Renesmee admitted equally softly, but Sam was chuckling, his shoulder moving beneath her.

Seth shared a smirk with Sam and then grinned at his sister. "What's the fun of him having imprints if he can't tease them?" the Beta murmured back before aiming his own wink Chancy's way. When the redhead flushed deeply, oblivious but grinning, Renesmee suddenly realized what they were talking about.

"Oh _no_! I'm not in love with _Jacob_!" Renesmee spoke up, horrified that her Pack would assume such things. Halfway down her non-aisle, Cassie paused and looked over at Renesmee, who went white when she realized that the entire wedding gathering was looking at her.

Renesmee froze like a deer, and then squeaked, making a head dive off Sam's shoulder so quickly that the big wolf almost didn't catch her before she hit the ground. Then Jake was laughing, a deep booming sound from where he stood by Paul.

"Ah, come on, Nessie, I'm not that bad!" he called over to her, as Sam hooked Renesmee around the waist to keep her from running away.

The retired Alpha hoisted Renesmee back up into his arms, although he was kind enough to not put her back on his shoulder, smirking. "Don't let him win, Ness," Sam told her with a wink, and Renesmee squeaked a second time when she realized Jake could see her again.

The Alpha was grinning at her, and even Paul looked amused. It was obvious Jake was waiting for her to say something, which was just as terrible manners and Renesmee's outburst had been. So the young girl gave Jacob a panicked look and whispered, "Jacob, there's a _wedding_!"

"Aww, Nessie, are you sur—"

"Jacob Black," Renesmee could hear Sue Clearwater's voice speak up in the crowd. "You leave that little girl alone right now!"

Jake immediately tucked his head and muttered, "Yes ma'am," causing the smirks to all turn his way. Grateful for a chance to be out of the spotlight, Renesmee placed her hand on Sam's collarbone and asked silently if she could be put down. The wolf grinned at her and shook his head.

"You won't be able to see, Nessie," Sam informed her, looking more relaxed and comfortable than she could remember. On their other side Emily was watching the two of them and smiling slightly.

So Renesmee closed her mouth and her palm and tried not to make any more declarations of non-love for her Alpha. She watched her Packmates get married and enjoyed it immensely, although when they were saying their vows, Renesmee caught a glimpse of grey near the couple's feet. She tilted her head in confusion, wondering if anyone else noticed the tiny squirrel with the slightly squashed tail scuttling around behind the groom, eyeing Paul darkly. It squeaked in pain and indignant fury when the Third shifted and stepped back onto its little paw, but other than Paul looking slightly smug, no one said a thing.

After the ceremony was over, the partygoers lit the massive bonfire already assembled on the beach and started pulling out coolers stuffed to the brim with food and drink. Renesmee watched them wistfully, but then went to find Seth, who was supposed to take her home after the ceremony. Seth had already procured his date a drink and was whispering to her, his arms around her waist and his mouth near her ear.

"—Clearwater, you don't have the balls for that," Chancy was sniggering as Seth's hands slipped a little lower.

"Wanna try me?" he smirked, nipping Chancy's earlobe and making the other girl's scent change. Renesmee blushed and wondered if Chancy was feeling okay, or if knew that Seth was being somewhat inappropriate in public. She must not, and she must be cold because Chancy had her empty hand slipped into Seth's front pocket. Huh. Renesmee had never seen someone—

"_Imprint_," a female coughed pointedly behind Renesmee, making her startle, and she looked over to see Leah smirking widely as her brother glanced over and turned beet red. Very little embarrassed Seth, but apparently a cold girlfriend did just that.

"Oh shit," Seth said loudly, and Chancy made an eeping noise very similar to the one Renesmee had made earlier when she saw they were being watched by a very confused Renesmee.

The redhead nearly spilled her drink getting her hand out of Seth's pocket and hauling his arms up higher. "Oops! Hi, Nessie! We were just, ahhhh….doing…something…"

"Good recovery, Chance," Seth muttered in her ear, keeping the redhead pulled tightly to his chest as he turned to Renesmee. "Sorry, Nessers, did you need something?"

"I'm supposed to go home now, Seth," Renesmee reminded him, wondering why the Beta seemed to be trying to hide behind his friend.

"Yeah, Seth, you go take the kid home," Leah grinned evilly. "Chancy and I can hang out here." Seth narrowed his eyes at Leah, but Chancy started laughing when he gripped her hips even tighter. The redhead tried to sneak away but Seth held her trapped with one arm, the Beta pulling out his phone and dialing a number with the other.

"Edward? Hey, it's Seth. How do you feel if we steal your daughter for another couple of hours?" Seth winked at Nessie, and for whatever reason suddenly seemed okay with letting Chancy go. Leah snorted, but Seth was too busy making false static noises into the phone. "What was that? Sorry, there's all this static, man. It sounds like you _don't_ want Nessie to have a blast. What's that? Home by nine? You're breaking up, dude, it's almost as if—eleven it is. Jack will bring her home by then!" Seth declared brightly, hanging up the phone before Renesmee's father had a chance to disagree.

Renesmee giggled, even though she felt bad for doing so. "Seth, Mister Jack isn't allowed to be around me late at night without supervision," Renesmee reminded him, and Seth rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, because we all know he's such a _terrible_ danger to you," Seth sighed before ruffling her tidily arranged curls. "Nessie, let me deal with your dad tonight, okay? No worrying. The only one that has to worry is Paul, because he's signed his life away. Isn't that right, Paul?" the Beta added in a loud voice that carried over the music someone had just started playing. Collin had driven his Jeep out onto the sand, and had a set of speakers in the back that he was arranging meticulously.

Paul, busy being the center of attention with his wife, simply raised a finger to Seth and continued on speaking.

It was a fun night. Renesmee watched her Pack and their families eat and dance and drink, growing more excited as the night went on. It was rare that they had things to celebrate all together, and there hadn't been any trouble in the reservation since Christmas. The time off from excessive stressors had been good for them, and it showed in their faces. Renesmee danced with Jake, who teased her mercilessly about not being in love with him as he swung her around and around and around in circles. She danced with Seth and Collin and Jared, with the other imprints, and even Leah and Sims. Sims was sticking to the other she-wolf's side that night, apparently Embry and Quil had volunteered for both shifts of the wedding, so Sims was there alone.

Renesmee felt kind of bad for her, she could tell that Sims wanted to dance, but the she-wolf turned down Jake when he asked, looking sadly in the direction of the patrolling wolves. Seth was nose deep in a redhead, but he hauled Sims out into the sand to dance a few times. Sam, who Renesmee knew was only running once every week or so, took Jack's place, and Renesmee couldn't help her excitement when she smelled her wolf's scent on the wind.

She also knew that the only reason she smelled it was because Jack wanted her to know he was there.

The small attention to detail made her feel special, but her wolf always made her feel special. A softly whispered hello, and his sparkling eyes as he greeted her in kind, and then Collin swept her away. Collin had spent most of the night dancing with Cassie, except for the slow dances that Cassie kept dragging Paul away for, but apparently it was Renesmee's turn again.

"Would the Lady Cullen dance with me?" Collin asked regally, sweeping her a deep bow, and Renesmee giggled, curtseying.

"If Lord Collin would be willing to indulge me," Renesmee grinned playfully, playing her part and placing her hand on his arm.

As she danced, Renesmee's wolf stayed deeper in the shadows behind the firelight, but the young girl could feel his eyes find her every few moments or so, and Renesmee knew that he was watching out for her. Every once in a while she would feel guilty about having so much fun when her wolf was staying off to himself, but Jack seemed content to do so and every time she looked for him, he smiled that small smile just for her. Eventually her wolf was approached by the Alpha and the Beta, and his focus turned to them more completely.

"Hey, Nessie."

Pausing in her dancing with Collin, Brady hefted up a bag of supplies and gave her a lazy smile. "I drew Shaggin' Waggin' detail. Wanna help?"

Brady was one of the wolves that Renesmee had spoken to the least, but Brady had always been particularly nice to her own wolf, so she smiled. "I'm not sure what Shaggin' Waggin' detail consists of, but of course I'll help you, Brady. Thank you very much for asking." Renesmee turned to Collin and dipped a very deep curtsy. "Thank you for the dance, Lord Collin."

Collin bowed to her gravely before giving her a wink. "My pleasure, my dear Lady Cullen. My pleasure."

"Dude, you're so lame," Brady chuckled, thumping Collin on the head as he walked past the other wolf. Renesmee giggled as Collin rubbed his head ruefully and made a face at Brady for her benefit. Renesmee followed Brady off to the far side of the bonfire and down the beach a ways. Someone had parked a massive Winnebago on the edge of the sand, and Renesmee paused mid-step, looking at it dubiously.

"Brady? Is it a…puppy?"

Brady grunted, but he was smirking. "An anatomically correct puppy. Stay near the front end, Ness, I'm not explaining that shit to your parents later."

Renesmee smiled and gave Brady a reassuring look, waiting as he opened the door for her to climb inside first. "It's alright, Brady, I've studied anatomy and am aware of the male physical form."

"Yeah well," Brady muttered, following Renesmee into the Winnebago. "The male physical form usually doesn't have squirrel bite marks or tassels…ahhh, don't tell your folks that part either."

The young girl looked around and tilted her head in confusion. "Brady? Why are there pictures of cookies all over the walls?"

"This is Cassie's car," Brady chuckled. "Don't ask. She'll make more sense to you when you're older, but even the rest of us can barely keep up. Here. Stuffed hearts go anywhere you can squish them, wedding bells on the strings go anywhere you can hang. Oh, and I'll make sure to glitter all of Paul's clothes," Brady added devilishly. He peered into the bag again and then smirked. "…Uhhh, how about I give the rest of this crap to Collin? He'll use it more than Paul anyways."

Renesmee leaned over to see what 'crap' Brady might be referring to but the wolf had already closed the bag, grinning. Together they decorated the Winnebago, which apparently was all ready to take off for Paul and Cassie's honeymoon. There were several bags of clothing and food supplies, and small box filled with prianik medoviy. Renesmee recognized it because her coven had made sure she was constantly trying new and more exotic things.

"Brady? Does Ksanochka ever dance anymore?" Renesmee asked curiously, arranging a stuffed heart on the Winnebago's sink. "Ballet, I mean? She was very good, you know."

Brady shrugged, rifling through the bag and pulling out a can of pink silly string. "Paul will hate this," the wolf chuckled before answering her question. "She only dances like that when she's alone, and a few times when Paul was around. It makes her sad, and Cass doesn't like being sad. She's trying to find new things besides dance, but shi—stuff is pretty limited here. Hey, Nessie."

Renesmee turned around and Brady grinned, squeezing the silly string her way. The young girl squealed and then made a dart for the bag, pulling out her own bottle and turning it on Brady. They were both head to toe with white and pink when the cans ran out. Grinning and wiping his face off, Brady looked around the silly string covered interior. "Yeah, neat freak Paul is going to hate this. I think our work is done. Why don't we—"

Brady trailed off and sniffed, confusion in his eyes. "Ness, did you cut yourself?" Brady asked, stepping towards her, but the young girl shook her head. But she could smell the blood too.

"No Brady, it isn't me," Renesmee assured him, turning and placing the silly string can in the small trash bin beneath the sink.

The wolf behind her cough uncomfortably, his voice strained. "Ah…yeah, kid. It is."

She followed his eyes down, and then Renesmee realized in horror that the back of her dress was wet. She turned around instantly so that Brady couldn't see, but the wolf had already averted his eyes. Renesmee's eyes filled up with tears, utterly humiliated. She had known that this would be coming soon, that she had started puberty and that menstruation was the next step in her life biologically, but she had never planned on it happening now, like this.

It was ridiculous, but Renesmee realized that she just _couldn't_ go outside like this. Her Pack would know. Her _wolf_ would know. And he would know if she panicked, so Renesmee did everything in her power to stop that from happening. Renesmee took several deep calming breathes, determined not to let herself get too upset.

"Brady, what do I do?" Renesmee asked in a tiny voice, causing the teenager's eyes to go wide.

"Ahh…ahhh…" Brady looked around helplessly, and then his nostrils flared. "I'm going to…ahhh…Nikki. I was talking to Nikki and she's a…and she…just come with me and we'll go find her."

Renesmee shook her head, now beet red, tears sliding down her cheeks. "No! No, please Brady, I don't want them to know. I don't want _Mister Jack_ to know."

The wolf stopped halfway to the door and then shuddered. She was an imprint and she was asking him for help, and Brady was a good wolf. He'd help her if he was able. So Brady turned around and looked around the Winnebago, and then he gritted his teeth, looking as if he was about to go to war and determined to go down fighting.

"Okay, just go to the bathroom," Brady told her gruffly. "Kim packed Cassie's stuff, and they're only going to the woods for a week, but Cassie's a…you know…so she has to have…you know…"

"Feminine hygiene products?" Renesmee asked in a tiny voice, and Brady made a strangled sound in his throat, pushing her towards the bathroom.

Renesmee went where he directed, wondering if she was supposed to actually do anything in here or if it was just easier for Brady to not have to deal directly with the problem at hand. He started muttering to himself as he tore through Cassie's bag.

"Clothes, clothes, clothes that aren't slutty, clothes…Here, Nessie, change into these." The wolf stuffed the clothes into the bathroom and into her arms before shutting the door. "Girl stuff, girl stuff, girl stuff…"

The young girl could hear him rustle through something and pull out two boxes. "Okay," Brady breathed to himself. "I've got this. I've got this…there's no fucking way I've got this. Nessie! Tampons or pads?"

"I don't know, Brady," Renesmee whispered, humiliated. "I hadn't talked about that part with my mother yet."

Brady cursed. Loudly. "Okay, I need to get one person to help me here, okay Nessie? One person I trust completely, and I _promise_ they'll keep their mouth shut. Okay?"

"Okay," she agreed softly, hoping that person wasn't Mister Jack. Praying that person wasn't Mister Jack. It was all Renesmee could do to try and force herself to calmness in here.

She heard Brady flip open his phone and hiss into it, "I need you over here. Play it cool and don't let anyone know. _Now_,like as fast as you fucking can without anyone noticing."

Renesmee cringed when only a moment later she heard the door open and then close quickly. "Brady?" Jared's voice asked worried, "Are you okay? What's wrong and why the hell do I smell blood?"

Never before had Renesmee heard a wolf sound as completely thrown as when Brady stuffed both boxes in Jared's face and whimpered, "Tampons or pads, Jared? _Tampons or pads?_"

There was a startled pause, and Renesmee could hear the words forming in Jared's brain, even before they came out of his mouth. "For you?"

"No! No, for…_what_? Why the _fuck_ would they be for me?" Jared started to laugh, but Brady must have covered his mouth, because the sound grew muffled as Brady hissed, "Shut up, she's _upset_. She's _crying_! And you can't say shit to anyone, she made me promise."

"Sorry, sorry, kid. And watch your language, Brady. Nessie, you alright in there?" Jared asked in a slightly louder voice, and Renesmee mumbled a yes. The older wolf clapped Brady on the shoulder and Renesmee could hear his grin. "Brady, there's a time in every guys life where he's got to deal with this. Consider this karmic payback for giving Embry hell last year."

Brady whimpered again and lowered his voice. "Jared, don't leave me here alone."

"I have one-hundred percent faith in you, kid, so make me proud. And give her the pads, the instructions on those are easier to explain to her."

"Instructions? What do you mean, _instructions_?"

And so Jared Qahla sealed both Renesmee Cullen and Brady Jennings' fates by leaving Brady to save the day all on his own, and Renesmee to suffer through Brady's attempts to explain proper feminine hygiene product usage through a bathroom door. Five minutes later, Renesmee decided that she was never letting someone else read an instruction manual to her again, and that as embarrassing as this was for her, at least she wasn't on the verge of mumbling incoherently.

Changed and properly protected, Renesmee slipped out of the bathroom, grateful that at least Brady and Jared were the only ones who had seen. Brady, obviously realizing that the crisis was over, needed to take his leave. He had already started drinking the alcohol that was stockpiled in the Winnebago, and looked wild around the eyes still.

"I'm okay, Brady," Renesmee promised, giving the wolf sitting on the floor a timid smile, wondering already what this new thing would change, what it would mean for her. "Thank you for helping me."

Brady nodded and quickly lurched to his feet, wiping the sweat off of his brow. "Yeah, yeah, cool. So I'm going to…ahh…go, Nessie. Ahh, you're coming back to the party after me, right?"

"Yes, Brady."

If she hadn't been so embarrassed about the whole thing, she might have laughed at how quickly he bailed from the Shaggin' Waggin'. When the door opened, Renesmee saw Sims leaning against the side of the vehicle, a wide grin on her face. Leah was standing right behind her. Brady paused halfway out the door and stared at them in disgust.

"You two were out here the whole time?"

"Yup," the younger she-wolf drawled lazily, her grin spreading. "You big baby." Brady growled at her dangerously, but Sims simply laughed and patted his arm. "Kim's sister is looking for you, and she's been eyeing you all night. Go be a man for a while, make out with her or something. You'll feel better."

Brady stomped off, muttering grumpily to himself about damn females and female shit, but then a dark haired she-wolf stuck her head in the door, a second following suit a moment later. They gave Renesmee twin grins.

"Alright, now that the fun part's over," Leah chuckled. "Come talk with us."

* * *

"Are you planning on hiding in the corner all night?"

Jack raised his eyes from the glowing firelight and smiled slightly at the young wolf in front of him. The Alpha had spent the evening moving about his Pack and the other guests at the celebration, dancing with his imprints and Leah, laughing and clapping his Packmates on the shoulders and helping them in teasing Paul mercilessly. His free moments had been stolen by stealing Seth's date away, and stealing other people's dates away, and even stealing a few circles about the bonfire with Sue Clearwater. Young and old, the women were always left breathless and beaming, and it amused Jack in seeing his own imprint as enraptured by their Alpha as everyone else was. Alphas were meant to draw the attention of others, and it was something that they did well. Pleased that Jake had taken the time to seek him out, Jack scooted over as Jake plopped down to the sand next to him.

"I enjoy seeing our Pack this content," Jack admitted, glancing at his imprint as Collin spun her about in circles near Paul and Cassie. Renesmee was openly laughing, and her laughter was only making the young wolf spin her even faster.

Jake nodded and then grinned. "She's gonna give you hell, you know that?" the Alpha chuckled. "Nessie's a sweetheart, but she's smarter than all of the rest of us put together, and she's got her mother's stubbornness under that shy exterior. You're always going to be running to keep up with her, right until she plows you over to get her way."

The ancient wolf's lips curved upwards slightly as he regarded his imprint. "There was a time that I resigned myself to this imprinting only, Alpha," Jack replied quietly. "There was a time that I was content to suffer it as a duty to the wolf spirit inside me. But she makes me…"

He trailed off and Jake glanced over at him knowingly. "She makes you happier, doesn't she?"

Jack dipped his head, but he nodded. "Yes, Alpha. It is a painful thing, for her extended presence is softening the haze that for so long made my life…simpler. It has brought memories, and attached to those memories are fresh wounds that seem as if they will never heal. But she brings me happiness, this is the truth."

"Hey Jack? Do you think it's her? Or do you think it's the imprint bond that makes you happier when you're around her?"

The ancient wolf was quiet for a while as he considered this question, gazing at the firelight thoughtfully. "It is a question that was rarely asked in the times when I ran as Tlokwali at my Alpha's side. Then we were content with our lot, content with the gifts and the burdens that came with being Tlokwali. But now it is different. There is much pressure in this newer world to have reasons behind the emotions we feel. Explanations and validations, proofs of our intentions, justifications for our words and our actions and our deeds. It is never enough to just…feel. I still mourn the loss of the one I had taken as my mate, Alpha, but I do not regret this imprinting. I do not need permission to enjoy her presence, and I am not ashamed that I care for her as I do now, or that I may care for her differently when she is older and wishes it of me."

Jake didn't look convinced, and he turned toward Jack. "But don't you ever hate the fact that it's forced? That the happiness isn't the real thing?"

Jack's eyes followed the flickering of the flames, unaware that the reflection danced across his features. "I sometimes wonder at a world that insists on twisting something that is intended for our happiness into something terrible, simply because it isn't of our choosing. I suppose I should fight for my right to be miserable of my own volition, but I have been unhappy for more centuries than most of our brethren live. I will take this happiness and accept it for everything that it is."

"Good and bad?"

"Life is never simple, Alpha, but it _is_ made of small and simple things. My imprint thinks of all of them at once, and often finds herself lost and confused beneath their combined weights. I, however, know that my belly is full and that my Pack is close to me. My imprint is content, and I am as well. My Alpha is at my side, and he is accepting of me. For this moment, that is all I need."

Jake chuckled and shook his head. "You really don't want to know why, do you, why we have to be any of this? Alphas, imprints, Pack…you really don't care?"

The ancient wolf shrugged. "I was a fishhook, Alpha, and I was a friend. I was the Qa'al, and I was a leader. I was a lover of a woman and a father to her child. I was a lone wolf, and I am now Pack again. Those are the 'whats' of my existence. It does not matter to me _why_ I was a friend, or _why_ I could lead, or _why_ I chose to love who I did. I simply did."

"But it matters to you why you _stopped_ being those things," Jake reminded him gently, and Jack grew quiet.

Finally Jack ducked his head a little further and whispered, "It matters why I failed at those things, Alpha. It matters so that I do not make the same mistakes again."

The Alpha was silent for a long time, and then he nodded. "I can't force you to be okay with your past, Jack, but I can appreciate the fact that you are with us in the present. I count on having you as one of us, Jack. I count on you having my back."

Pleased, the ancient wolf smiled at that. "It is a back worth having, Alpha."

"That sounded dirty," a third voice piped up, and Jack looked up to see his Beta heading their way, his red headed date in tow. Seth was grinning as he dropped himself next to Jake, dragging a startled Chancy with him. "Do you mind if we join in?" Seth asked cheerfully as Chancy grunted and oomphed and made herself comfortable between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her waist loosely and seemed extremely content to be doing so.

"What do you think, Chancy?" Jake asked the younger female. "Love at first sight? Or really, forced love at first sight. Is it worth it being in love, feeling those things, if you never intended to be?"

Chancy looked at the Alpha with a funny expression on her face. "Jake, anyone that _decides_ they're going to fall in love with someone isn't going to feel the real thing anyways. It's never intended. Which is why being in love really fucking sucks or is the absolute best thing in the world. Who cares if it's at first sight or at first…I don't know, week or month or something? Love is love, isn't it."

The Beta hummed thoughtfully at that, but then looked around. "Hey Jack?" Seth suddenly asked. "Where's Nessie?"

His head snapped up so fast that Jack's neck popped, and he frowned, inhaling deeply. His imprint had disappeared.

For a moment Jack felt fear roll through him, intense and debilitating. Despite the fact that her heart was gentle and her ways kind, the truth was that Jack's imprint was very dangerous. He had not felt any discomfort coming from her through the imprint bond, but her thirst had come upon her swiftly before and he knew it could happen again. Jack should not have let her out of his sight, not for her protection but for the protection of the humans around them. But he had grown distracted, if only momentarily, by his Alpha and as such had lost his imprint.

Losing one's imprint, especially when a squirrel was nearby, was a bad thing indeed.

It didn't take long to find her. His imprint had not gone far, and in fact was within a few yards of some of the party guests, but she had seated herself on a rock overlooking the ocean just outside of the firelight and she had changed her clothes to a loose pair of sweats. Renesmee had a she-wolf on either side of her, and whatever Leah had just said had the young girl blushing furiously. Sims laughed, a happy sound that the ancient wolf hadn't heard from her in a while, and a grin stayed on her face as she glanced over her shoulder at Jack.

"It's girl-talk time, Jack," Leah said without looking. "You need to leave."

Jack tilted his head, and then realized that his imprint was blushing even more furiously. A scent filled his nostrils and then he understood.

"Let me know if I am needed, imprint," he said quietly, before padding away.

He must have had a curious expression on his face because when he returned to the firelight, Seth raised an eyebrow at him. Jack shook his head, looking bemused. "She grows quickly," was all he said. Seth craned his head to catch a glimpse of the clothing change, and then nodded in understanding.

"Awww, is our little girl becoming a woman now?" the Beta chuckled, tugging the girl on his lap closer into his arms. "I remember her being all little and cute like it was just yesterday. Hell, I think it was just yesterday."

Jack wasn't exactly sure what to say. His obvious discomfort made Seth smirk, and the red-haired girl smacked his arm. "Don't you dare tease that poor girl, Seth," Chancy told him firmly, and Seth grinned at her when she added, "What? It can be so traumatic. At least she's with other girls, boys don't always do well with that kind of thing. Be nice to her and don't treat her weirdly."

"You're awfully pushy these days, Chance," he teased her. "Just cause I'm considering putting out doesn't mean you own all of me."

Chancy smirked and whispered in Seth's ear what exactly of his she did own, and what she was contemplating putting on a rental program if he wanted to get out of there. This time Jack raised an eyebrow as his Beta colored.

Seth coughed, and then glanced around to see if he could make a fast getaway. "Ahh, well, yes," he mumbled, hauling both himself and Chancy to their feet. "Jack? If anyone asks, we left to go…do…something…"

The redhead rolled her eyes and said, "You really are an idiot, Seth." The Beta grinned at that and then tugged his companion away from the fire and down the beach, sneaking her into his arms and pulling her out of sight into the trees.

After a few more hours, the party was starting to wind down, and Jared was drunk again, standing on a log and declaring to anyone that would listen that Paul was an asshole but that he was the best friend a guy could ask for. Jared decided that rhymed and also decided that Kim should join him up on the log. Kim didn't particularly want to stand on the log, but Jared had deemed it necessary, and she humored him up until the point where Jared slipped and sent them both tumbling. Brady, being wise in the ways of Jared's rare and celebratory drinking, was prepped to catch both when they tumbled, although somehow Kim got her nose squashed on someone's elbow. It may have been Nikki's, and by the younger Connweller's grin, it just may have been on purpose.

The happy couple said their goodbyes, and Jack noticed his imprint returning to hug both Cassie and Paul before they headed off to the Shaggin Waggin. Cassie declared to the crowd that she'd try not to break Paul too much, causing the Third to flush deeply and hoist his new wife into the vehicle. Then suddenly Cassie made a sad face and turned around.

"Paul, I didn't say goodbye to Jack," she told him unhappily, jumping back down from the Shaggin Waggin. Seeing her little blonde head bobbing through the crowd, Jack felt himself smiling as he eased past the people standing between them. The Third's imprint threw her arms around Jack's neck and hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry, Jack," she said, "But I promise I really didn't forget you."

As he returned her embrace, Jack smiled slightly and decided that to not be forgotten was a very great thing indeed.

When the imprint let go, Jack turned around and saw his own imprint standing at his side. She waited until everyone had yelled and hollered and waved goodbye, Cassie honking the puppy horn repeatedly as the Shaggin' Waggin' rumbled away, and then Jack's imprint turned to him. "Mister Jack, would you please take me home?" she asked quietly, and Jack nodded.

"Oh course, imprint."

They had often walked through the forests together, and the pair fell into the easy rhythm that they had adopted over time. If she wanted him to guide her, she would fall a step behind, placing him in the position of dominance. If she wanted to make her own way, she would take a position slightly forward and Jack would drop back to her heels. Jack had found that it worked well for his imprint to have multiple options in which she could choose from, her mind sometimes chafing and being held back and her spirit not yet always ready to push ahead alone.

One day, perhaps, they would walk side by side, but that time would be long in coming. Today she lead and he followed, and he was content to do so.

"Mister Jack? I started menstruating today."

Her words were soft, uncomfortable, and Jack wasn't sure how to answer her. Her education was of such that she would have greater knowledge of it than he himself, so he simply nodded silently. The young girl glanced out of him out of the corner of her eye, and he could see uncertainty there. Uncertainty towards him, and perhaps a touch of fear.

It bothered Jack deeply to think that his imprint was afraid of him.

"I…just thought you should know," she added, voice trembling slightly. "Since…" she trailed off, even more uncomfortably.

Jack didn't understand, so he turned to his imprint and dropped down to his haunches. "Ayásochid, Renesmee?" he asked gently, wondering of perhaps this had been a troubling night for her. With her growth spurt, she had grown in her spirit as well, and that spirit did not allows chatter as a child's spirit did. Often her words stayed unspoken on her tongue.

Renesmee flushed deeply but then seemed to feel the need to force herself to continue on, her voice growing quieter with every sentence. "I'm fine, Mister Jack. I just know that imprints are…well, we're the wolves' mates, aren't we? And mating is about reproduction and…so I thought you should know…that I can now…"

And then she cringed.

The ancient wolf realized what she meant, and then grew very still. Then he sank down to his knees, trying to make himself as small and non-intimidating as he could. He inhaled deeply and then let his breath out in a heavy puff of air. "Imprint?" Jack said in his rough voice, stretching out his arm in front of him. "Please show me what you're feeling."

It was the first time that he had ever asked her to use her gift in explanation, and she blinked in surprise before stepping forward and placing her hand on his arm. She was confused, but she was aware that as him imprint, she was supposed to be his mate. That had always seemed like a far off thing, but she was realizing now that it wasn't. Technically she was capable of bearing children, and while humans had rules on what ages were appropriate for reproduction, wolves didn't and—

Jack gently closed her fingers and the young girl let her hand drop to her side. The ancient wolf looked at her, truly looked at her, this imprint of his. Even in someone else's baggy sweats, she was a beautiful child, standing with much more grace and poise than she ever seemed to realize she had.

But she was still a child in his eyes. The wolf inside him wondered if its human was ever going to get around to reassuring their mate, and Jack felt startled at the weight of its presence in his mind. It had been a very long time. Even as he thought that, the wolf slipped away into the back of Jack's spirit, and the man bowed his head.

He wasn't ready to have to answer this.

"Renesmee…" Jack said quietly, staring at the dirt at his feet. "I have hurt many in my life, in many ways. I have failed them, and I have brought them shame. But what you are asking, I could never do. I understand that you are confused, but you are doing me an injustice, imprint. If you are asking if I want to have sex with a child, then my answer is _no_, Renesmee._ I do not_."

Renesmee seemed to realize that she had offended him and she reached out to take his hand. "Mister Jack, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

"It is what you _asked_, imprint," he told her softly. "And I will answer what you ask, no matter how shaming your question to me may be. You are my imprint and I am your wolf. That is the power you have over me, and that is what makes you my weakness. I care for you very deeply, and I will do what I must to protect you and help you as you need me."

Jack paused, searching for the right words to say. "But I am an old wolf, imprint, older than any other. I have lived many lives and not all of them kindly. I do not resent you your questions, Renesmee, but I do ask that you understand something. That which is simply knowledge gathering for you may be painful for me. I am a man who has loved and done so with as much honor as I could. I would _never_ do that which you are implying. It bothered me deeply when your Cold One parents suggested such upon our imprinting. It is no easier hearing it from your lips, Renesmee."

Renesmee nodded, and the young girl released his hand, stepping back and for the first time seeming to realize what her parents had been worried about all along. Jack watched her process it, watched her understand his words as much as she possibly could. Then Jack saw a measure of sympathy and understanding in her eyes, eyes for the moment reflecting the woman she would one day become.

"I promise I won't hurt you again, Mister Jack," Renesmee vowed quietly. "No one should have to feel ashamed. And I won't think about it anymore until I'm older." He knew that it was a promise that she intended to keep.

Jack nodded and rose, content to leave it at that. This time he led the way through the forest, his silent but thoughtful imprint following at his feet.

* * *

Samantha slipped into her home, trying to be as quiet as possible. It was late, almost dawn, and she knew that her boyfriend was sleeping by the slow breathing coming from the couch.

The couch. He was on the couch again.

Closing her eyes, Samantha tried to draw strength before padding into the living room. Things had been difficult between her and Embry lately, but she knew he loved her. She knew, and she knew that they both just needed time to adjust. It had only been a couple months, and sometimes it just took time—

"Samantha? Is that you, sweetheart?"

She must have not been as quiet as she thought, because Embry was propping himself up on his arms, peering sleepily over the back of the couch. Samantha gave him a smile and went around the end of the couch, settling herself on her knees on the floor next to him. "Hey," she said softly, running her hand through his hair. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's okay," Embry yawned, glancing at the clock before leaning over and pressing a kiss to her lips. Then another to her jaw. A third to her breast. "I have to get up and be at work in a couple hours anyways."

"So we have time?" she asked hopefully, and Embry smiled slightly. His eyes were always dark these days, and his smile was always tired, but Samantha let out a noise of pure relief when he pulled her into his arms. He hauled her across his bare chest, mouth finding hers unerringly, and when he flipped them over, his weight deliciously heavy over hers, Samantha groaned.

It had been so long since they had been together. Usually Embry just told her he was tired, or he ran extra patrols, or made up random excuses about needing to meet up with Paul over security issues. When the truth was he was avoiding her. It had hurt, and it hurt worse because he denied it, but Samantha knew him. Something was wrong but he just wasn't ready to talk to her about it yet, and tonight was the first time since she had phased that he was holding her like he used to, like he wanted her. Like he needed her.

But even as she wrapped her arms around his neck, Embry shuddered and started to pull away.

"Embry, please," Samantha whispered, pressing her forehead to his. "Please, why are you doing this?"

"I'm not doing anything," he mumbled, and when Samantha went to kiss him again, he lifted himself off of her, and pushed himself to the far side of the couch.

Samantha followed, realizing that she was crying. "Embry, what did I _do_? Why are you so angry with me? I'm sorry I phased without talking to you first. I'm sorry I ruined so many of our plans. I'm _sorry_. But we can't get past it if you won't _talk_ to me!"

A funny expression passed over his face, and Embry touched his hand to her cheek, his thumb wiping away her tear. Then Embry pulled back, his face closing down and shutting her out. "I love you," he said gruffly. "Just…just give me time to try and work through this, okay?"

Nothing. He would tell her nothing. Hurt, Samantha rose and walked wordlessly to their bedroom, shutting the door behind her. When she laid down, she kept to her side, but she knew there was no point to it.

After all, Embry never slept in there anymore anyways.

* * *

Beneath the waning moonlight, a lone wolf padded over to an old apple tree, settling down and curling at the base of its trunk. The wind blew gently through its leaves, stroking down his fur like familiar fingertips. The old wolf tucked his nose under his hip and he tried to remember. He tried to remember her, the way she had been, the way he had loved her so much. But for some reason all he could remember was the way that she had tried, and failed, to love him that much back.

All alone, the ancient wolf pressed against the roughened bark, and without the scent of Cold One in his nostrils to comfort him, he exhaled softly and restlessly slept.


	20. Chapter 18

**A/N **Here's the last chapter. :^) The epilogue should be up in a few hours. _Hach chiˀí_ means "Good morning". The rest is more fun to wonder what they are saying. *grins* Thanks to everyone who snuck a review in between updates, you guys are the best! *hugs*

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Chapter Eighteen

_**Hoquiam, Washington, 2008 AD**_

_Some people are born, live and die with the most minimal impact on the world. Some people are born, and with their first steps start changing it._

_They couldn't help it, Rico knew, it was just in their nature to walk into a room and start shaking things up. Alpha, Jack called them, the combination of natural born leadership and dominant self-confident personality. Assholes, Rico liked to call them, a lazy grin on his face. Not everyone likes to have their worlds shaken up. _

_Sometime after the turn of the millennium, the vampire had noticed his old friend growing twitchy, constantly looking towards the north and the place that had once been his ancestral home. The wolf was always a little twitchy, the jackal more of a jack rabbit in nature as time and grief wore the wolf down to the bare bones of what he had once been. But the twitchy wolf was still the best friend Rico had ever had, and he decided that after so much time together that maybe Jackie would be willing to take a suggestion. _

_"I got you a job," Rico told Jack one day, the vampire busy cleaning out the feet of one of the bay geldings he had just sold. "Got you a car, too. Try not to crash it and be at Barney's Bar by six."_

_Okay, so maybe it wasn't so much of a suggestion as it was a subtle push in the right direction. After all, the wolf had tried to lie down and die a long time ago, and it hadn't worked so well for him. Since Jack was still alive and kicking, if a little off his rocker, Rico thought that the least he could do was get out there among the real world for a while, get himself some easily earned cash and some even easier earned women, hell maybe even have a good time or two. And because the wolf that had once succeeded in killing Rico was mostly content to let the vampire lead them down whatever path he chose, Jack shrugged and did as the vampire asked, albeit barely avoiding multiple accidents on the drive downtown. _

_Rico went with him just for the fun._

_Apparently a thousand years spent hunched over campfires means that a man can __**grill**__, and Rico found much pleasure in kicking back in the corner of the bar, his boots kicked up and a redhead or two on his lap as he listened to everyone clamor for the burgers his buddy was flipping. Burger down, wait a minute, flip it over, wait a minute. For Rico, it would have been boring as hell, but for Jack it was something that he could do and do well, and the vampire thought it was about time the guy felt good about something._

_For all Rico was concerned, he and Jackie boy could stay there forever. Rico getting beers and getting laid, Jack smiling slightly at the vampire's calls for some more of those "great Jackie boy burgers" for Rico's ladies. They were legends in their own right, the wolf and the vampire, and as he adjusted his hat with a lazy grin, Rico decided that some ballrooms were just as much fun as others, and at least now he didn't have to spout poetry or recite the great authors to get someone's attention. A wink and crooked finger was all it took to have someone bouncing on his lap. _

_And then, because good shit just always has to be ruined, the Alpha walked in. _

_The fucker had been stomping around up north for a couple years now, making Jack more and more nervous by the day. The Pack had been run out of La Push, had scattered itself about the land, leaving Jack and Rico's home relatively wolf free. There was never more than a couple wolves up in La Push at a time, making Hoquiam a quieter, safer place. It was one thing to know you had Alphas running around out there, hell bent on killing you if they met up with you. It was another to have the strongest Alpha that Jack had ever felt since T'sikáti just outside their doorstep. Rico knew the rest of them were gunning for Jack, so it never occurred to the vampire that these wolves would do anything but the same._

_Even way back in the corner at his usual table, Rico knew exactly who that wet dog smell was, because that one was the complete opposite of Jackie. That one walked into a room as if he owned it, as if he had every right to tear it down or leave it as is. That one was about to shake things up, because his nostrils flared, eyes swinging to first Rico, who smiled from across Barney's and tipped his hat to the Alpha, to Jack, who stared at the Alpha in absolute horror. _

_Rico uncurled himself from his evening's conquest, knowing that Jack was too close to the Alpha for Rico to help him, but knowing that his old friend could still handle himself if he chose to. That was the key word, chose. From the looks of things, Jackie boy was about to turn tail and bolt. Tlokwali, the true wolves of La Push, and Jack's personal silver spoon on a fucking gilded platter. They could do no wrong, not to Jack._

_The only reason Jack was still standing on those two shaking legs of his was because he didn't know if the Alpha planned on killing Rico or not, and Jack would fight to protect the vampire. Rico was a little curious about that as well._

_"Evenin'," Rico chuckled, swaggering over to the Alpha, who was watching him approach with guarded eyes. The Alpha looked at him and then looked back at Jack, whose whole body had begun tremoring in stress from the whole thing. Then the Alpha turned back to Rico. _

_"Hey," he said, jerking his chin up slightly. "You two know each other?"_

_Rico smiled wider and adjusted his hat down over his eyes, knowing Jack was shifting around the bar to a position nearer to Rico. The vampire smirked at that, wondering if this pup knew just what he faced. _

_"Jackie boy and I have been running together the last couple centuries," Rico drawled quietly enough for the other patrons to hear. The Alpha looked confused at that, and then nodded. He swung interested eyes back towards Jack, evaluating the older wolf. Rico stood lazily, waiting for the moment when this massively built Alpha would strike, but then the pup rocked their damn worlds. Instead of the hatred, the disgust, insults, this wolf turned completely to Jack and smiled a broad, white toothed smile._

_"Hey, brother," the Alpha said in a friendly way, his voice softening because he could see how tense Jack was. "Don't worry, I'm just passing through and seeing if I can find any others like you. I'm the Alpha from up in La Push. Name's Jake."_

_The Alpha held out his hand, and what was left of Rico's friend shattered, but in a different way. The vampire watched his old friend struggle, struggle harder, before whining softly and offering the stranger his throat. That was it. That was all it took. Four sentences and the Alpha had already won. Four sentences giving Jack belonging, comfort, and a reason for the wolf to twist his head even further. After five centuries of friendship, it only took four sentences and this Alpha owned him._

_Son of a bitch. _

_"I'm betting y'all will want to get acquainted," Rico decided lazily, tipping his hat to the Alpha. "I'll just leave you two alone." The Alpha watched him go, eyeing Rico carefully as the cowboy found his seat and his women, pulling one across his lap and lowering his hat over his eyes. Rico pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, wondering if Jack would even notice. _

_Naw, the vampire decided, hoisting the girl closer, probably not. _

* * *

Renesmee was feeling peculiar.

A few months ago she would have sat down and examined herself. The young girl would have considered her emotions from every angle, taking notes on how they differed from her standard emotions, and after a complete evaluation of herself, she would have come to an appropriate hypothesis as to the origin of her peculiarity. But now? Now Renesmee went for a walk instead, and she allowed herself to search for the peace that her wolf was always suggesting that she keep.

The more time she had spent with her wolf, the more Renesmee had begun to see the world around her. She had always looked at the world, but she had never really _seen_ it for what it was, and what it could be. Renesmee could name nearly every piece of flora around her, could describe their cultural and medicinal values, knew what would flower in a few days and what would stay green and hidden until weeks from now. But she had never watched the way the sunlight reflected off of a single blade of grass as it bent beneath its dew covered weight. She had never rested her hand on the trunk of an evergreen and felt the way the cool bark pressed its pattern into her palm, the lines and ridges a unique greeting of that tree and that tree alone. She had heard the voices on the wind, but she had never stopped and listened to the _wind's_ voice, she had never wondered what the wind might want to say.

Her Aunt Alice thought she was going native. Renesmee preferred to think of it as an attempt in obtaining a fully comprehensive educational experience, performed in a more natural learning environment. Her Aunt Alice had looked at the grass stains on Renesmee bare feet and the dirt beneath her fingernails and Alice had sighed mournfully. Renesmee was definitely going native.

As she walked, Renesmee decided that there were worse things. Her Pack all had Native American blood, every single one of them including Cassie, and Renesmee was the odd man out. At least on some level she could be closer to them, even if some of their experiences would never be the same.

"I'm often the odd man out," Renesmee told a bird as she passed beneath its limb. The bird stilled momentarily…Renesmee was a predator after all, but then the young girl smiled. She had watched _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ when she was two, and she remembered how Snow White used to whistle to the birds and they would sing back at Snow White.

Scrunching up her face, Renesmee tried to whistle. It came out a shrill squeaking noise that wasn't very much of a song at all. Wrinkling her nose, Renesmee tried again. The second attempt was better, but was more reminiscent of a windy day than a princess singing with her forest friends. The young girl was older now, but she was alone and she didn't mind being silly when she was all by herself. So Renesmee bobbed a very deep curtsy to the bird in the tree, inclining her head with the utmost respect. The bird tipped its own head curiously.

"My dear bird," Renesmee said, grinning and doing her best to impersonate her wolf's laid back mannerism. "My whistling leaves much to be desired, but I have a secret. You may be a blue bird, but I am a black one, and I hide beneath my whistling a set of raven's wing. Would you like to fly with me?"

The blue bird trilled, and to the young girl's delight, it took to wing.

Renesmee had been given some freedom in her walking, as long as she made sure to drink enough wolfblood that she felt sloshy first, that she stayed between the coven and the reservation in the area where almost no people ever came, and to limit her walks to an hour only. Her parents had insisted that both her coven and the Pack knew that she was wandering in between their homes, and more often than not both a wolf and a vampire was ranging about her just out of hearing distance. Renesmee chafed at that, but she understood the precautions and appreciated the fact that her families and Pack were trying to give her the space she needed. Space to walk and to talk on her own, space to be herself, whoever she was growing into becoming.

Sometimes Renesmee wished that she could spend the day out in the woods by herself, to enjoy the world around her on her own terms, but she knew that she was a dangerous liability. Even she never knew when her thirst would overcome her, and until she did, the young girl knew that no matter how hard she tried, they couldn't trust her.

It was something that she was learning to come to terms with.

Still, the desire to pretend that she wasn't different was always there, and as the bird lifted itself into the air, Renesmee took wing. Barely skimming the ground, the raven girl flew, twisting and turning and doubling back when her companion had a mind to. And because Renesmee wasn't perfect, was starting to find that perfection was much too hard to attain when one focused on it completely, she allowed herself to break the rules and flew a little further than she should.

Renesmee _could_ have helped herself, could have stopped, but she didn't. She was young and she was playing and she was happy.

She was still happy when she realized that she had gone too far and really did need to turn around, and she whistled badly to the blue bird as it continued its journey without her. As Renesmee turned to go back home, a scent filled her nostrils that made her pause in surprise. She knew that scent but it was still unfamiliar to her. It was coming from the southeast in a wide sweep, as if having made an effort to avoid the coven, and Renesmee could tell by the breeze that the scent was headed towards La Push.

Renesmee had left her cell phone at home so she couldn't tell Jacob what was going on, but she did let her excitement and nervous pleasure grow unchecked, hoping that her wolf would be able to tell that something interesting was going on. Her desire for him to be there was easy to feel, was easier to let build in her veins, and there was the softest pressure in her stomach in response, the flickering of emotion that was so mild on her senses that Renesmee missed it. The young girl rarely missed anything, but she was very much looking forward to this moment, so it was with a smile on her face that she stepped out into the path of the oncoming scent.

She smoothed her hands on her sundress and hoped very much to make a good impression as she waited for the newcomers to appear out of the trees. She knew that she was a small person, even after having grown, so she stepped up on a rock and adjusted her dress again. She was an imprint and she was very proud of her wolf, and Renesmee was aware that her Pack had an image to maintain.

"Hach chiˀí," Renesmee called out cheerfully as the wave of wolves broke out of the darkness of the forest, greys and browns and black, all massive and powerful and impressive. There was so many of them, and Renesmee watched in wide-eyed fascination as two identical steel grey wolves shifted her way, coats gleaming under the sun. They were _beautiful_.

The young girl was still smiling in appreciation when the wolfborn flanked her and went in for the kill.

* * *

"Hey Nikki, check this out!"

From across Newton's Olympic Outfitters, Collin hefted up a brilliantly neon pink basketball and grinned over at his best friend and the girl standing at Brady's side. Nikki raised an eyebrow dubiously and Collin's grin widened.

"What do you think, Owen?" Collin asked loudly to the fourth member of their group, his voice drawing the attention of everyone in the sporting goods store. "Good enough? Or do you think she'll want some sparkles on this too?"

At Collin's side, Owen shifted uncomfortably and said nothing, ducking his head and trying not to look at Collin or Brady or his freshman classmate.

"Bite me, Collin," Nikki called back from across the store, trying to see him from around Brady's broad shoulders. Almost as short as her older sister was, Nikki Connweller's head barely came to the wolf's collarbone. It would have been easy for her to duck behind Brady's bulk to shield herself from Collin's teasing, but instead she went up on her tip toes to see him better and flipped him off. Collin beamed at her and tossed her the basketball, ignoring the fact that he was half the store away and that the owner, Karen Newton was watching them with faintly veiled irritation.

Nikki caught it easily, spun the thing on her fingertip, and then trapped it in her hands. "This is the ugliest thing I have ever seen," she decided, wrinkling her nose at the basketball. "Collin has terrible taste."

Brady aimed Collin a baleful look, clearly not appreciating his friend's constant commentary, but Collin cheerfully ignored him.

"I like her, Brady," Collin decided with a wide grin. "She's sporty, she's pretty, and she's not afraid of my good looks and overwhelming charm. What do you think, Owen? Brady and Nikki? He's three years older than her, but she's at least thirty IQ points smarter than him. Match made in heaven or too soon to tell?"

Owen muttered something about fishing and hunched his shoulders, shuffling over to the display of rods and reels, which just happened to be as far away from Nikki and Brady as he could get. Nikki in the meantime had turned bright red.

"I am _not_," she muttered, and Collin's grin widened as he leaned against a rack of sweat pants.

"Are too," the wolf declared cheekily, pretending to misunderstand. "He just turned seventeen and you're fourteen, Nikki. The freshman and the junior…well sophomore cause we were too stupid to pass the first time around. The sweet innocent young girl and the not-quite-as-dastardly-handsome-as-I-am older man. Alas, young love has no age. How much older are you than her again, Brady?"

Brady rolled his eyes and stole the pink basketball, lobbing it at Collin's head. "Ignore him, he's an idiot," Brady muttered gruffly, looking embarrassed as he followed Nikki towards the wall display of basketballs.

Collin smirked as he caught the neon pink ball and glanced over at the silent and obviously miserable Owen, who had just ducked behind a cardboard cutout of a man fly-fishing, and looked as if he was planning on remaining there. There was bad blood between Owen and Brady, although Collin wasn't exactly sure why, it wasn't Owen's fault he'd been tripped into Nikki the other day. But Brady had nothing but glares and grunts for the kid that Jake had warned them would probably be phasing soon, and it made Collin curious if it was just Brady lashing out or if it was similar to Collin's struggles in getting along with Jack and his other lower ranked Packmates. Maybe the kid would phase in too close to Brady's rank and that was what was setting Collin's friend off.

Considering how Owen wouldn't come anywhere close to meeting Collin's eyes, it was clear that he wouldn't be near Collin's rank, so he didn't bother Collin in the least.

Jake had put Collin and Brady on "Owen Duty", with an emphasis on _Collin's_ being on "Owen Duty". They were supposed to keep him close and make sure that if or really _when_ the kid phased, that one of them would be there. Since Owen wasn't friends with any of them, with the exception of Cassie, it was Collin's job to make sure that the transition went smoothly. And if the kid didn't phase, well, it was Jake's feeling that the kid needed a friend. "Owen Duty" was the first official Pack job Collin had been given, and he was determined to do this well.

The four had made the trip into Forks based on a comment Nikki had made at school the previous day. The semester was nearly over, and Nikki was planning on attending the Fork's summer basketball camp like she always did. However her basketball was worn out and she needed another for practice. Collin had watched Brady spend nearly twenty minutes building his courage up before muttering to her that Collin and Brady were headed to Forks that weekend. They could take her.

Collin knew that Nikki had caught Brady's eye earlier in the year, but it hadn't been until Sims flat out told Brady the younger girl was interested that Brady had considered dating her. She was Kim's sister, and Brady was very careful when it came to anything Kim related, he didn't want to hurt Kim or somehow let her down. So Brady had sat down with Kim and Jared and asked them what they thought, and when they had been supportive (hell, when were they not supportive?) Brady had busted out his moves and put his mack down.

Considering that after the invite to Forks, Brady had barely said two words to Nikki, his mack left much to be desired.

It was their first official not-date, and it was obvious that the two were extremely aware of it. Nikki had been nervous since they had picked her up, and if it wasn't for the fact that Brady kept "accidentally" letting his arm brush into Nikki's, Collin would have thought his friend was too freaked to even try with her. Knowing that a little help was never a bad thing, Collin leaned sideways around the rack and peered sneakily at Brady. The other wolf was listening to Nikki talk about playing point guard, and he had stuffed his hands in his pockets.

Collin rolled his eyes and coughed under his breath. "Dude, pockets. _Pockets_."

Brady shot Collin a glare over his shoulder, but Collin grinned widely as Brady did what he said, wiping a sweaty palm off on his jeans. Brady's finger twitched towards Nikki's and Collin coughed again. "Just do it." Brady growled almost inaudibly and Collin smirked, coughing louder, "_Pussy_."

Brady grimaced and then took her hand, cringing as if he thought the world was about to explode. Interestingly enough it didn't, but it did earn Brady a shy smile from the pretty girl at his side, and her slimmer fingers threading between his. A funny expression crossed Brady's face, and Collin watched his friend smile back at her, a rare and real smile. Considering how things had been standing for Brady, considering how many nights Collin had sat by as Brady tried to drown out this past year in as much alcohol as he could get his hands on, the relief Collin felt at seeing that smile was palpable.

Resting his chin on his arms, Collin pretended to take a nap standing up, keeping one ear open for the kid in the corner.

At some point Collin actually did fall asleep, and he must have been drooling on the sweats because a flick in the forehead woke him up. It was Karen Newton, looking irate as she pointed to a rather large wet spot on the shorts closest to him. "Young man, if you're only going to sleep on my merchandize, then you need to leave."

"Yeah, Collin," Brady chuckled, walking up behind him and smacking him on the back of the head with the hand not around Nikki. "Stop slobbering like a dog." Apparently in the time that he had been sleeping, Nikki had bought a basketball and Brady had figured out that a girl that would let him hold her hand would probably let him put his arm around her waist too.

Collin rubbed his head and flashed the owner his most apologetic, most winning smile. "I'm sorry ma'am," he said politely. "I stayed up all last night studying and it must have caught up with me."

"Bullshit," Nikki coughed, and Brady gave her a proud grin as they headed out the front door. The owner narrowed her eyes and began to open her mouth, but someone interrupted her.

"He was," a voice mumbled from behind Collin's shoulder. It was Owen, looking as if he would rather be anywhere else. "We…both were. It's finals next week."

Collin beamed and threw an arm over the younger man's shoulders. "See? Isn't it great that teenagers these days can still appreciate the importance of our educations?"

"You should go now," the owner decided and Collin grinned, already dragging Owen towards the exit.

Collin clapped the freshman on the shoulder before jumping lightly down the steps. "I appreciate the backup, Owen my man," Collin chuckled. "You're good to have around in a pinch. I actually played Zelda half the night, but it doesn't have quite the same responsible ring to it."

"You weren't studying?" Owen asked in confusion, and Collin's smile fell when he realized that Owen was serious. Collin wasn't sure what to say. He knew the younger man wasn't the most talkative person he'd ever met, but Collin had thought that his discomfort was situational only. It hadn't ever occurred to him that Owen wouldn't be able to pick up on his sense of humor, or that maybe Owen would be too slow to keep up with him.

"No man," Collin admitted, feeling badly.

Owen seemed to realize that he had said something wrong and ducked his head, causing him to stumble on the steps walking down. It caught the attention of Brady, who looked unimpressed, and Owen flushed, his face twisting back into that miserable expression. Brady still had his arm around Nikki, and she was beaming up at him as they stood by the door of Collin's Jeep. It suddenly clicked why Owen had spent most of the morning hiding from them in the corner of the room, as far away from Brady as he could get. It meant that Owen was away from _Nikki_.

Collin cursed softly. "Oh shit, dude. I didn't know."

The lanky youth shot both Collin and Brady a panicked look, and it occurred to Collin that Owen was scared of Brady. It made things harder, because Collin's loyalty was to his best friend. But if Owen was going to be Pack, that meant that Collin owed him some loyalty as well. Still, Owen was obviously upset, and he didn't look all that close to losing it, so maybe Jake was wrong about him phasing. Honestly, Collin wasn't sure that Owen had that extra edge that they all seemed to have prior to phasing, that extra desire to push back when pushed. Even Jack had it, as submissive as he was.

"I won't tell him," Collin said, knowing that his words would carry to Brady's ears and feeling like an asshole for it. "But he likes her too, man," Collin added apologetically.

This kid was going to hate both of them if he phased, but Collin was Brady's best friend. If another guy was after his girl, Brady needed to know. Brady's eyes stayed on Nikki's, listening to what she was saying, but Collin could see his jaw tightening. The hand that remained on her hip made Brady's position clear.

As he started the car and headed across Forks, Collin kept up his relentless teasing of both Brady and Nikki. The pair in the backseat scooted around and rolled their eyes at his comments, but Collin wasn't doing it meanly. Collin knew his best friend, knew how incredibly hard it was for Brady to be comfortable around females, to talk to them or acknowledge he liked them. Oh, Brady would check them out all day long, and occasionally would ask one out, but Collin couldn't remember the last time Brady actually had gone on a date or had a girlfriend.

Collin wasn't sure why it was hard for Brady, because talking to girls had always come very naturally to Collin. But with Collin constantly referring to them as dating, even Brady couldn't pretend that the girl whose hand he was holding wasn't there with him.

"Is he always like this?" Nikki grumbled at one point, looking as if she was considering bouncing her new basketball off of Collin's skull.

"Don't worry," Collin reassured her, winking in the rearview mirror. "You'll learn to love me."

Brady chuckled and readjusted his hand around Nikki's. "Collin, leave her alone," he said, kicking the back of Collin's seat.

"Hey, watch the wheels," Collin growled, and then suddenly Owen sat up, peering out of the window.

The motion instinctively drew both Collin and Brady's eyes, and Collin cursed, slamming on the brakes. Nikki yelped in surprise, and Brady growled, bracing her as Collin swung the Jeep off the side of the road. This time Nikki did whack Collin on the head with her basketball. "What the hell was that for?" she growled. "Are you trying to _kill_ us?"

But Collin wasn't listening, he had already unbuckled his seat belt and stood up on the seat, vaulting overtop the front windshield. Brady had bailed out of the back and the two young men had to force themselves not to run as fast as they actually could. They were just outside of Forks, but already the forest had tightened in on the road, nearly hiding the fact that there was a lump of something on the ground off in the trees. Collin had no idea how Owen had seen it in the first place, but when Collin's nose took in the scent he snarled and threw caution to the wind and he began running faster.

Brady's nose was better, so it was no wonder that he beat Collin there. Just because Brady's family treated him like shit didn't mean that they didn't matter to him, so the young wolf dropped down to his knees, scooping the figure on the ground up into his arms. "Callie? Callie, are you okay?"

The young woman had been sprawled out, and despite the wide grin on her face, she looked like she'd had a rough night of partying. Her arms, left bare from the short top she was wearing, were dirty from lying in the earth. Her jeans had stains on them, both mud and grass, and she had forgotten to buckle her belt back up. Her feet were bare and she smelled of sex and alcohol, and something else. She looked up at Brady and then began laughing when her eyes couldn't focus on him.

"I…am…_awesome_," Callie promised him. "I am so fucking awesome, you don't even know it."

"Whoa, she smells weird," Collin blinked, half pinching his nose. "Really good but really bad too. How much shit did you drink last night, Callie?"

The girl ignored him, trying to focus on Brady. "I tried to call you, but you never call me back, Jared. You missed one hell of a party." Callie wrapped one shaking arm around his neck, but when she moved to kiss him, convinced Brady was Jared Qahla, Brady growled in disgust.

"You're my _cousin_, you dumbass," Brady snapped at her, turning her over so that she couldn't try again. "I'm _Brady_. How the hell did you get out here, Cal? Did some loser just drop you off? Do you even know where you are?"

Callie began laughing even harder, rolling back onto the ground between Collin and Brady, this time face down with Brady's arm supporting her. "Baby Brady, always running away," she said to the grass. "I don't care what she says, you're a lo_ser_…"

He shoved her at Collin before standing up and backing off a few feet. "She's fucking wasted, Collin," Brady snarled. "High as a kite. Just leave her here, if she wants to wreck her life, let her."

"Yeah, like all those times I hauled your ass home weren't any different," Collin snapped back, aware of the fact that Nikki and Owen had come out after them and were standing back a few yards, watching uncertainly. "You and Derek are out of the hellhole, but she still lives there. Cut her some slack, Brady."

Brady said nothing to that, but he did growl and pull off his sweatshirt, handing it to Collin. Nikki made a strange choking noise in her throat, unabashedly staring at Brady from behind his back, and normally it would have amused Collin immensely. However he was more concerned with getting a girl into a sweatshirt and out of the mud.

Helping her to her feet, Collin tried to steady Callie around her waist. "Callie? What did you take honey?"

Callie began to wobble on her feet, shivering as she looked at Collin with unfocused eyes. "Hmmm?"

"It doesn't matter, Collin," Brady grumped. "Just throw her in the Jeep and we'll take her home. She obviously is fine. It dropped below freezing last night, so if she's still fine now, she…"

The young wolf trailed off, realizing what he was saying, and Collin cursed, this time louder. "She _shouldn't_ be okay, Brady," Collin said, taking Callie's face in his hand. "She should be really, really sick. Callie? I need you to answer me. What…did…you…take?"

She began laughing again, but then stopped abruptly and made a whimpering noise in her throat. She shivered again, and Collin tightened his grip on her, pulling her closer so that she was leaning her weight against his chest. She began to rub her nose against the base of his throat. "Ummmm, something to chill me out. Doesn't matter, cause I feel good now."

"Downers? Is that what you took? Callie, _answer me_."

"I wouldn't stop shaking," she told him, giggling at his worried expression. "I have the bottle…somewhere…I just bought it so you can have some…" Callie began patting herself down, and Collin slid his hand into her back pocket, pulling out an empty pill bottle. Callie smiled blissfully. "It makes you stop shaking."

Suddenly the really good part of her smell made really good sense, and Brady was groaning miserably. "Can anything fucking go _right_ anymore? Why the fuck does it have to be _her_?" he snarled, but Collin's instincts were going off, making him feel as if something…something was missing…

"Who cares why her?" Collin growled, looking at Brady. "Why _now_? We haven't had any—"

And then it hit, the force of one of one of their brother's panicking, a fear so base and terrible that it made Collin's insides twist. It shook them and pulled at them and sent their senses reeling, making Brady grunt at the pain of it and Collin snarl. Suddenly that fear was cut off, as if someone had turned off a light switch, and Collin and Brady only had a moment's worth of staring at each other in shock before the first of the howling rose off in the distance. Something was happening between the reservation and the coven, something bad. Jake wanted them there, and wanted them there _now_. Flickers of conversation between the leaders of Collin's Pack, leaving Collin's blood running cold. He and Brady were too far away.

"What the hell's going on, Collin?" Brady snapped, looking around wildly, but Nikki was making a frightened noise.

"Owen? Are you okay?" Nikki asked, sounding confused and more than a little scared. "Brady? Collin? Owen's shaking. I think he's having a _seizure_."

Collin looked over and saw the freshman staring at them, his eyes wide and his body trembling. But Owen wasn't looking towards the rez, or the coven. He was looking back towards Forks. _Forks_. And then the scent of leech hit, familiar and acrid in their noses.

"Oh fuck," Brady breathed, the color draining from his face as the scent of the leech went right past them, barely several hundred yards away.

_They needed to go, _Collin's wolf was telling him. _They needed to go__** now**_.

"Brady, stay with them, get them deeper in the woods," Collin barked, shoving Callie back into Brady's arms. "Calgary's here and Jack's facing them alone, so there's no one to help you. Try to get away from Forks and don't let them hurt anyone!"

"What the hell is that smell?" Callie asked, blinking bleary eyes as she stared around in confusion, her whole body tremoring. "It smells terrible."

Nikki cried out and made to grab for Owen, who was shaking so hard that he could barely keep his feet. "Owen! Oh my god, you guys! He is definitely _not_ okay!"

Brady's face went pure white, just as a louder howl rose from the further off forests. "Collin, don't you dare," Brady whispered back in a hoarse voice, but Collin was already shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, Brady," Collin said, taking a step back. His voice hardened into command, even though he was terrified by what he was going to do. "Take care of them, Brady. Owen, get away from Nikki, you'll hurt her in about two minutes if don't. Nikki, get back in the Jeep and stay there until one of us gets you. I'm sorry this won't make any sense to you, but Brady's a good guy, okay? Give him a chance, he deserves it."

"_Collin, don't you fucking dare_!" Brady roared, tossing Callie over his shoulder and reaching out to grab Owen by the base of the neck, hauling them both away from an even more frightened looking Nikki. Owen was trembling so badly, he was going to phase any second. "Collin, he'll _kill_ you!"

_**But they were going to kill the Cold One first**_, Collin's wolf decided for the both of them.

"Love you, Brade," Collin whispered to his best friend. And then he began to run.

* * *

Halfway through _Ballade pour Adeline_, Edward lifted his fingers off of the piano keys and glanced at the clock. In five minutes his daughter was supposed to be home and he hadn't been able to catch her scent or thought pattern yet. At his side on the piano bench, Bella arched an eyebrow at him curiously. His keystrokes had been perfectly timed and there had been no reason that she had seen for him to stop.

"Alice, are you still watching Nessie?" Edward asked, turning towards the rest of his family.

It was one of those rare occasions that the coven was all together, and from her position near the fireplace, chatting with Carlisle and Esme, the pixie-like vampire stuck her tongue out at Edward. Her thoughts were clear to him so she didn't have to say them out loud, but Edward still chuckled when she did for the rest of the coven's benefit. "If someone thinks that I _ever_ stop watching out for my niece, then someone should be bitten by someone else."

Jasper looked up from the book he had been reading and shot his wife a quirky grin. "Is that a request, Alice?" he asked in his quiet voice, and Alice smiled at him cutely.

"Maybe," she chirped. Then she sighed, saying, "But Nessie's about to decide to chase a bird further away from where she's supposed to go. One of us should probably go get her…Oh. Never mind, she's about to decide that she needs to come back. She'll feel badly about it, by the way."

"Another crisis solved," Emmett smirked from the couch, his arm slung around Rose's shoulders. "Good one, Alice."

This time Alice didn't have to stick her tongue out because Jasper had bared his teeth at his coven mate, if not particularly aggressively and only for a moment before the vampire returned to his reading. Jasper was nose deep in _Watership Down_, and as such would require more than Emmett to distract him. Emmett grinned and winked at Rose.

"When he's done reading about the bunnies, I'll start worrying," Emmett promised.

Bella frowned and glanced at Edward, who gave her a shrug. "It's not as if she'll never break the rules, Bella," Edward told his wife. "But I'll go get her. Alice, where is she right now?"

Alice concentrated and said, "She at the—oh." Alice blinked, startled. "She just disappeared."

"What do you mean _disappeared_?" Bella growled, and Alice flapped her hand towards her coven mate.

The older vampire turned and walked half a step away in her distraction. "She's still gone, but the blackout is the same as when she's with one of the Pack," Alice said, seeming confused. "For some reason I can't get a clear grasp on later tonight. You'd better go get her. Nessie's probably with Jack."

Now Edward shared Bella's deepening frown. They were trying to trust the wolf, they really were, but his refusal of returning her to them a few months ago still rankled. Jack knew he was supposed to talk to them first before seeing Renesmee…surprise visits without some sort of supervision weren't allowed. Edward rose to his feet, his wife at his side.

"We'll both go," Bella said firmly, her eyes narrowed, causing Emmett and Rosalie to share a grin and stand up gracefully. Jasper closed his book and smiled serenely, doing the same. There were some things more interesting than bunnies, and watching their newest coven mate lose her temper was high on the list of those things. Bella snorted at them, and Carlisle shook his head, looking faintly amused.

"We have a truce, children," Esme reminded them, "Play nicely."

"Yes, Esme," five vampires agreed immediately, before slipping out of the door and darting away.

Esme's eyes narrowed. "Why don't I believe them?" she asked no one in particular, and Carlisle patted her hand comfortingly. Alice hummed happily and began trying to focus around the dark spots in her vision, stopping from time to time to focus on one or two other, and nearly as important, things. Edward and his family had just passed beyond earshot when Alice let out a sudden cry.

"Carlisle!" she gasped in horror. "_He's here!_"

* * *

Not far from the place where a raven girl had let her wings take her, an ancient wolf lay in the shade of a cedar tree, peacefully sleeping. And as he slept, he dreamed.

_In his dreams, the Quileute brave was walking along the sandy beaches of his ancestral home, a brindled form at his side. Smaller and weaker than they had once been, the wolf still paced its steps to Jack's perfectly, and Jack to it. The wolf would not look at him, and he would not look at it, for they had been in disagreement of many things these last many years. But they were one, as they always had been, and as they always would be._

_As they walked, the brave watched the waves crash upon the shore, and he smiled when he saw the flash of scales sparkling within their depths. Even in the spirit world, where T'sikáti should have padded on silent paws, the fish remained the fish, reveling in a freedom that as a wolf the fish had never been able to maintain._

_The knowledge that he was in the spirit world made the brave pause, and he looked up in concern. He was no longer welcome here. The spirits and the ancestors felt that he—_

_The wolf had long since grown weary of its human's self-flagellation. For a very long time, their decisions had been enough, and it was of no mind to question itself. The wolf had fought to protect what its human spirit had needed protecting, and had done so to the best of its ability. But its human had chosen to turn upon himself, turn upon the wolf spirit. It's human had nearly killed both of them when he had forced their belly to the dirt and allowed them to stay helpless beneath their Pack's fangs. The wolf spirit was proud, if no longer strong, and was ashamed of its human. _

_Deeply aware of that shame, the brave's feet stumbled, for where the sand had been smooth, the ground was growing rocky and rough, and more difficult to tread. His steps slowed, realizing that ahead the land had grown darker, deeper, more foreboding, but the brindled wolf continued on heedlessly. _

_They passed by a sandy colored wolf, who found great amusement in sticking his nose beneath the gently lapping water and staring at his fish self. Scales and fur had little in common, and he was fascinated that his heart was one while his spirit was another. He lifted his dripping muzzle from the ocean and thought that perhaps in chasing the fish, the fishhook had lost too much of himself. He was being left behind, he was being left all alone again._

_The brave looked up and realized that it was truth. He was being left behind, a brindled wolf walking courageously ahead, when the brave wanted nothing more than to stay where he was, to turn back and flee to easier days. He buried his fingers into the sandy coat at his side. He wasn't ready yet._

_**Traitor**__, the wind whispered, but the wind came from the brave's breath, and blew down the shoreline, stirring the waves of his heart into foaming, churning masses. _

_**Murderer**__, the spirits reminded him, their reminding flowing like memories in the brave's head, images of moments so deeply regretted._

_**Betrayer**__, the brindle wolf decided, knowing that its human's spirit was too afraid to follow it, that the brave no longer trusted himself or his wolf spirit in what was wrong or what was right. Betrayal, not of another, but of his own self. _

_The world grew heavy as the darkness spread, and the brave watched his wolf spirit disappear beneath its rolling shadow. Hidden from view, the wolf spirit began to snarl, a low dangerous sound because they were needed. They were needed. _

_"We are needed, old friend," Jack whispered, fingers tightening into the fur beneath them, but his fingers closed upon nothing, because the Alpha was dead, and even in this spirit world, where the brave had never fully withdrawn himself from, that fact would never change._

_T'sikáti sank down to his belly comfortably, tongue lolling out of his mouth as he wondered if the raven would be able to fly higher than the owl, or if her feathers would stay tucked in a drawer alongside the first. But he, T'sikáti, was not needed. What good were the dead, when the living still remained?_

_The brave shuddered, because the land was pitch black and the way ahead blind to him. The brave knew only where he had been, and not where that path would lead, but the brindled wolf growled again, more furiously now, because they were needed. They were needed, they were needed. _

_**She needed them**__._

_And because his fear of failing her would always be stronger than his fear of the path yet to come, the brave plunged into the darkness and ran. _

Jack came awake with a clarity that he had not had in many centuries. His imprint was going to die.

The ancient wolf didn't question his instincts, did not fight them or try to qualify them. Instead he rolled to his feet and began to run. He knew she was going to die even before she did, and he could feel her excitement and pleasure fill her before turning swiftly to confusion. Confusion became shocked realization, and when that realization shattered into a childlike terror, Jack lost it.

It had been a long time since Jack had gone berserker, but today would be the day.

In their long lives together, T'sikáti had never told Jack how difficult it was to restrain him. Even at his most powerful, the brindled wolf had always been lighthearted and easygoing, content to follow in his Alpha's footsteps. He had led by experience more than force of dominance, and as such had never surpassed T'sikáti or the Pack's Beta in ranking. Simply put, he was a wolf that had been at peace in his place in the world and had needed nothing more.

Right now, Jack needed more. _His imprint was going to die_.

Jack had sworn to himself that this time he wouldn't make the same mistakes, this time he would do this right, and yet he was still too far away, he was still too late. In Montana, Jake had been too far away to feel the brunt of Jack's panic, the Alpha having been far more focused on Brady and Paul and Sims. But now there was only Jack, and Jack's helplessness, and Jack's fury, and the force of that hit Jake so hard that deep within the reservation, Jake staggered and almost fell. Then the Alpha's contact with Jack surged beneath the power of the ancient wolf's emotions.

He had tried to be _perfect_.

He had tried to do everything right this time, he had stayed passive and obedient at his Alpha's heels. He had given way beneath the needs of his Pack, made their needs his own, made them _everything_. He had asked for nothing for himself, he had taken the confusion and the humiliation of being the only wolf in history to have ever imprinted on a Cold One, and he had given her that which he had lived so long without: acceptance. He allowed himself the chance in her to protect another and to care for them. She was just a child, and Jack hadn't known what the future would bring them, but in him she had been given a friend that would never turn away from her, a confidant that would never share her secrets, a safe place to be who she was without concern for who she ought to be.

He had tried to be perfect, to do this _right_. And again, he had failed.

Jack didn't know why the wolf spirit in himself had selected in Renesmee a mate when it had looked at so many others and had always turned away. The man had never thought of her as a mate, that had been Tuktukadi, that had been his lost lover who had carved her way into Jack's soul. But the wolf disagreed, it had never wanted that woman, it had never attached itself to any other than T'sikáti, and it was only now in the twilight of their life that his wolf had finally chosen a permanent companion. Renesmee was not Jack's mate, not yet anyways, but she was his _wolf's_ mate. And as once a man had raged at the threat against his woman and child, his rage bolstered by the strength of the wolf spirit within, so now did a wolf spirit rage at the potential loss of a mate. And it was the man's body that was the vessel of that rage.

Jack's fury at the threat to his imprint and Packmate and of his wolf's fury at the threat to a mate collided, filling Jack with such wrath that it slammed through his Pack like an explosion, rocking them painfully. Even in Mexico, even in Montana, even in Calgary, they had never felt something like this from him. His Pack had always known his potential, had given him the respect his experience and skill was due, but backed with that nearly berserker rage, even Jack's Alpha was taken aback.

Jake had a moment, a split second of coherency to understand what was going on from his wolf, and then that coherency blasted away, once again sending his Pack spinning.

Leah would later describe it as waking up and finding yourself in the middle of a tornado, with no clue what was up and down, what was right or left. The best that Jake could do was to cut off Jack from the rest of the Packmind, to protect them from the terribleness of his anger. And then the Pack was running, as fast as every single one of them could run.

Jack would get there first.

He found his imprint still upon her rock, standing uncertainly next to a crouching man, a man that Jack now only knew hatred for. The pup that he had trained, who he had guided and mentored and saved the life of, Jack no longer would spare. There were nearly twenty wolves spreading out between Jack and Tupkuk, and most of them had been raised to look upon Jack with disgust and hate, but Jack didn't care. He didn't care what they felt or thought or wanted from him. He didn't care that they had suffered from his mistakes, and he didn't care that they had fallen from the honor that had been their days as Tlokwali. He didn't care what happened to them, he didn't care if they returned the sentiments. At the moment he only cared about one single thing.

"_**Give her back**_."

Jack's snarl ripped through the Pack, quieting them beneath its dangerous intent. The ancient wolf stalked forward, ignoring the bodies that separated him from his enemy. Jack's eyes locked with Tupkuk's and his voice lowered. "_Or I start killing them_."

Tupkuk's eyes narrowed at the threat, and he rose to his full height, looming over the child next to him. At the base of the rock, the wolfborn ignored Jack completely, watching Renesmee instead with bright blue eyes as they circled their leader. Renesmee shifted uncomfortably, not sure of herself at all, and Jack would have felt sympathy for her confusion if he didn't know the danger that she was in.

The wolfborn wanted to kill her.

"She is unharmed, kadidu," Tupkuk said finally, his voice curling around the insult as he gazed upon Jack disparagingly. "Is this the current Cold One whose heels you trail behind? Or will any of the blood drinkers do?"

"_Hísta Renesmee_ _xáxi_, Tupkuk," Jack spat, stepping forward within the mass of wolves, seemingly utterly uncaring of their snarls and snapping jaws.

"Wáli ťàcha á, póˀokw," Tupkuk replied in kind, eyes gleaming as he added in a deep resonating snarl. "Tsalili basal, _kadidu_."

Jack's answer was a wordless roar of rage, and Tupkuk rose to his feet at the challenge. "_Give her __**back**__!_" Jack snarled, tremoring from head to toe as he began striding into the mass of wolves, and the young girl started to step towards him only to have Tupkuk grab her arm and pull her back from a wolfborn's muzzle.

"Mister Jack!" Renesmee cried out, sounding fearful. Her fear was something that Jack simply could not handle. When one of the wolves in his path snapped their teeth at him, the ancient wolf's eyes half lidded. It was the girl who stopped his next action, even as Jack started to take that next step that would roll him into his phasing. "Mister Jack," Renesmee pleaded, looking very upset. "I really didn't mean to cause any trouble. I just wanted to greet your friends. I'm very sorry."

A shudder went through Jack and he had to fight to contain his words. This one was no friend. These wolves would _never_ be friends again.

"If you phase, I will kill you," Tupkuk said flatly, eyes burning with mutual hatred. "But if she is not what I think she is, then it is my right to kill her. My wolfborn would have done so to begin with, but I stopped them. The child reeks of fully turned Cold Ones, which is reason enough to kill her, but also smells of Pack, which is reason not to. Does your Pack claim her as one of their allies, kadidu?"

"He's not a dog," the young girl whispered bravely.

Tupkuk looked down at her, and she was glaring at him, her large eyes full of tears. She was frightened, true, but she was also angry. Jack's eyes narrowed, seemingly oblivious to the shivering of the wolves closest to him even though he was not. He knew them, knew they were frightened of him, knew they couldn't wait to kill him anyways. If they wanted to strip his hide limb from limb, then let them try. Jack was done with lying down and taking their blame. His dead Alpha…no, _Jack's wolf_ thought that the wolfborn would be the greatest risk. Even they might not be enough to take on those two given these odds.

Renesmee was looking at him, not at all sure as to what to do, and Jack's fury only rose. His imprint was gentle and should not be made to endure this. She should _never_ be made to endure this.

"She is an ally, she is Pack, and _she is_ _mine!_" Jack growled, wading deeper into the mass of snarling, snapping wolves. "She is my imprint and _I_ claim her! And if you attempt to take this one from me, I assure you, pup, this time _you_ will have nothing left when _I_ am done!"

Apparently Tupkuk had not been expecting that. It was easy to know if a human spent an inordinate amount of time with a Pack or a coven, because the scents would linger in their hair or clothes, and sometimes after prolonged exposure, would stay etched into their very skin. Usually prolonged proximity to one's imprint carried the scent of the imprinted wolf on them, and made them easier to recognize, but Jack had always kept the required distance from Renesmee. In truth, there would be times in which she would smell as much of Jake and Seth as she would of Jack himself, and the Beta had come by to spend time with her only the previous day.

In visiting her yesterday, Jack's Beta had saved Renesmee's life.

The Calgary Pack had grown still, at least the ones that had been Tlokwali and still maintained what was left of their honor. Those whose honor had been stripped away completely by Chitakido, or who never had much to begin with, merely watched Jack and waited to attack. Tupkuk's expression of shock faded into tight anger.

"_Again_?" Tupkuk snarled, his slowly building anger causing his eyes to flash. "Again you take our ways and you flaunt them as if they are _meaningless?_"

"Phase next to my imprint and you'll die before this day is through, pup," Jack spat, forcing his way closer, but Tupkuk had already seized Renesmee by the arm and was hauling her off the rock, his Pack giving way as he moved directly towards Jack. The wolfborn stalked at his heels, blue eyes fixated on Renesmee.

Tupkuk practically shoved the girl into Jack's arms. "Take her, Qa'al," Tupkuk growled, shaking with fury and slipping into the old title on accident. "Take your _thing_ and get out of my sight! _You both sicken me_."

Insults toward himself, Jack could handle, but he would not accept them directed towards his imprint, and he wouldn't accept them from Tupkuk any longer. Jack knew why the other Alpha was here, it was in answer to Jake's claim of fault. But Jack had absolutely no intention of letting Tupkuk face his Alpha. He snatched up Renesmee in one arm and kept his other free to defend her, turning his body slightly as he backed up to the edge of the Pack. As he backed up even more.

"Are you unharmed, imprint?" Jack asked in a low growl, his limbs still shaking as he inhaled her scent deeply.

She didn't smell injured, but that didn't mean that his nose wasn't wrong. It had been damaged in Mexico and still wasn't the same. The young girl pressed her palm tightly to his arm, telling him what happened, how beautiful the other wolves had been, up until the two steel grey ones had turned on her. She had been quick, had managed to avoid them by darting beneath one's belly, and the Alpha had snatched her out of their jaws when they spun on her a second time. She was so very sorry, she hadn't meant to upset anybody, and she was scared and confused and uncertain, and she was afraid that these wolves were going to hurt him. She wished that the Alpha was wearing clothes, because it was very inappropriate for him to not be doing so, and she was sorry she had stayed near a naked man, but she had been too scared of the grey wolves and the rest of the Pack to move away…

"Are you _unharmed_, imprint?" Jack repeated, putting even more distance between himself and the wolves, the Calgary Pack a mass of shifting bodies as they mulled impatiently behind their Alpha and the wolfborn. When his eyes met the more dominant wolfborn's gaze, the grey wolfborn wrinkled its lips back from white fangs and crept forward a couple paces.

"Yes, Mister Jack," Renesmee whispered, and he put her down. She was faster than these wolves and had enough of a head start, and he could smell her coven coming this way. Her hand was still gripping his arm, and as Jack's fury tempered itself into a deadly intent, he took a moment to appreciate the fact that her hand on his arm felt good. His contact with others had been so little for so long, and those small fingers cared what happened to him. She cared. She loved. She mattered.

His imprint mattered. His Pack mattered. Their protection mattered. Jack would hunker on his belly and let this Calgary Pack be a threat to them no longer.

"Renesmee," Jack ordered gently, for he would not let his last words to her be directed in anger. "Run."

She froze, realizing that he didn't mean to follow her. "But Mister Jack—" she started to say, and then her eyes filled with tears. She shook her head, but he was already stepping in front of her, cutting off her view of the rest of the Pack.

Tupkuk could read body language as well as Jack could, and the other wolf was trembling with the effort to hold himself in. The Calgary Alpha knew Jack was planning on attacking him, and Tupkuk wanted that fight just as much as Jack did. Jack knew Tupkuk was giving Renesmee time to leave both killing her wolf in front of her, but the Alpha would not wait much longer, whether the imprint was clear or not.

Tupkuk's Pack began to shift restlessly, and Tupkuk barked in Quileute that they were not to attack anyone. This fight was between the kadidu and Tupkuk only.

"_Run_, imprint," Jack growled, and then the small hand on his wrist slipped away because the Calgary Alpha was coming, and Jack was striding forward to meet him. Renesmee made a small sound of despair in her throat before the girl did as she was told, turning and fleeing towards the safety of her family. He glanced back and saw that she was escaping, a rush of relief filled Jack, and then he crouched mid-step.

"I warned your Alpha not to let his dog wander loose," Tupkuk murmured dangerously, eyes half lidded as his Pack began spreading out around him. "I came to answer his claim of fault to me, _Qa'al_, but my claim of fault with you goes back far longer. Now you imprint on a Cold One? You shame us all, old teacher. I think the time to kill you has been long past due."

Jack bared his teeth savagely as he circled the other wolf, his words cruel and cutting. "I would chastise you for frightening children, pup, but one that murders his own sister is too heartless to realize his mistakes."

"My sister died the day she was turned, _kadidu_," Tupkuk spat, his eyes flashing furiously. "I just killed the demon that you allowed to steal her shape. She was no longer there and by protecting the demon that killed her, you made a mockery of her and your promises to her. _You_ failed her!"

Jack's face twisted in hatred. "Tuktukadi was herself, you fool. I held her, I loved her, I made _sure_ of it before I let her live! She was herself, if a frightened and confused version, and under your hand she _died_ who she had always been. You did not have a scratch on you, Tupkuk. I know she never fought you. Tell me, has a day passed that you haven't felt your kin suffer beneath your teeth?"

"Have _you_?" Tupkuk spat back, his Pack snarled their approval of his words. "I claim fault, _Qa'al_. For myself and for us all of us that were once Tlokwali. Do you accept?"

"Gladly," Jack snarled, and like he had done for so many hundreds of years, Jack let the change roll through his bones, let the wolf spirit once more retain its rightful shape. The second eldest wolf alive did the same, and as the brindled wolf lunged at the grey one, a small terrified voice cried out his name.

"_Jack_!"

The brindled wolf had already committed himself to the attack, knew the enemy that he faced, knew that nothing could distract him. But as his imprint's voice rang through the air, his instinct was to twist his head and look back over his shoulder. He simply couldn't stop himself. Jack's eyes met hers, and the look on her face was one of horror, but instead of running away, she was coming back. Jack's imprint was small, but her small heart was full of courage, because she was coming back at a full run. This time, the one he protected was trying to protect him too.

_No_, _imprint, please don't_…

That was the last thought Jack had before his enemy's jaws crunched down onto his neck.

* * *

Dr. Misty Foster should have been sleeping. However, like most of the times that Misty should have been sleeping, she was in Carlisle's private lab in the hospital, working instead.

Carlisle had often told her that there was more to life than just saving them, that she needed to go out and _have_ a life too, a life of her own. It wasn't necessarily that Misty disagreed, not at all. But her work was her life, and it was the life that she had always wanted, and Misty didn't find anything particularly wrong in enjoying the life that she had fought so hard to earn.

If it meant that she didn't get out as much as she would have liked to, well, the past had taught her that a social life could be a dangerous thing.

Misty had turned the lights in the lab down, and she was humming along to the quiet music in her headphones as she worked. She was waiting on the results of a test she was running, and as she sat perched on top of a stool near the diagnostic machines, she idly flipped through a file splayed out on the lab bench. It was much thicker than it had been several months ago, and it was full of lab work as confusing as any Misty had ever seen.

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen," Misty murmured as she scanned the notes that both herself and Carlisle had compiled. "You become a little more anemic every month, and no one knows except for your blood tests. Tell me what's wrong with you, sweetie."

"She's probably just thirsty," a voice spoke from behind her ear. It was a voice that Misty would die remembering, a voice so etched into her soul that all she could do was sit still and feel the blood drain from her face.

Cold. She felt so cold.

"I missed you," Neel whispered into her ear, leaning something against her leg so that he could draw her headphones out of her ears. He rested both hands on her shoulders, trailing them down her upper arms, curling his hands around her trembling fists. "But my maker taught me how to hide myself from the little wench by staying with that travelling mass of dogs. She only just now knows I'm here. Don't worry, darling, I won't have to miss you again."

She was going to die. Misty knew it with a fierce certainty, had known for years that this moment was coming. She had allowed herself to hope that it wouldn't, but science and factual evidence had always ruled her life. Misty knew she was going to die. And she was going to die terribly.

The doctor sucked in a tight breath, tried to reach for her pen. Her stupid pen, and no way it could save her, but it was the only thing within finger's reach. His mouth was on her earlobe now, tracing down her neck. There was venom in his fangs, but not in the rest of his teeth, and Misty hissed when he bit the outside of her neck with his side teeth, cutting her skin deeply. She could smell her own blood even as her finger found the pen, told herself not to scream. He would kill her coworkers if they saw him, she couldn't.

Don't scream. Don't scream. _Don't scream_.

But when he began to feed it was too much and too familiar, the wet lapping noises triggering a terror that she couldn't contain. With a mindless cry of terror, Misty tried to grab the pen and twist, to stab it through his eye and kill him, but his arms along hers forced her to stay in place. His weight pushed her into the bench, held her trapped as the blood continued to well out of the cut, dripping down the side of her neck. Misty twisted, tried to fight her way out of his grip, gasping in hard breathes as her feet kicked the stool out from beneath her, sending it clattering. Then she stepped on something, something that was hard beneath her feet. It was a leg.

_She was standing on a leg._

"You always did smell the best when you were frightened, lover," Neel told her with a chuckle as what was left of her courage snapped, and as he pinned his hand over her mouth to muffle the sound, Misty began to scream.

* * *

Renesmee didn't know why she didn't do what her wolf said. Maybe it was because he was the one person that she was convinced she couldn't disappoint by disobeying him. Maybe she was acting instinctively because of the imprint bond between them.

Maybe he was her best friend, and she was very much scared that these wolves would kill him.

So even though Renesmee could smell her coven coming (they were going to be so angry with her that she had strayed…), she only took a few steps before she heard her wolf snarling in that terrible anger, an anger that she had never seen in him until now. And when she heard that, heard _him_, Renesmee couldn't help but turn around.

Renesmee saw her wolf take two steps towards the Alpha and then phase, the crystalline shattering of his bones less musical and more foreboding to her sensitive ears, his brindled form uncurling from the man's form. And she saw what she was sure he didn't, that the two grey wolves that had attacked Renesmee were now circling out to flank her wolf the way that they had flanked her.

"Jack!" Renesmee screamed to warn him, already throwing herself forward to try and intervene, and she saw her wolf turn and look at her. To Renesmee's horror, in that moment, the Alpha's teeth snapped shut around the base of her wolf's neck.

Renesmee was a very educated girl, and she knew exactly what it meant if one's neck was broken. So when she heard the crunch, she let out a cry of fear. Her wolf snarled at the pain, but didn't go limp, his smaller body twisting and clawing as he tried to fight his way free. But the Alpha had the upper hand and was shaking his head, trying to dig in deeper. Not knowing how to help but knowing that she couldn't just stand there and watch him die, Renesmee flung herself towards the foreign Pack. She never got more than a stride because someone's arms snagged her midair, trapping her. She twisted instinctively to bite the hands that were holding her back, but then she realized who it was. Jack's Packmates were coming to help him, and the two fastest were already there.

"Nessie, get back!" Sims snarled before shoving Renesmee behind her. In the she-wolf's excitement, she had pushed a little too hard and sent Renesmee stumbling and rolling almost twenty feet.

The she-wolf didn't waste any more time because the other La Push she-wolf had made a running leap for the Calgary Pack, Leah's lean grey body bowling into their masses as she fought to get to Jack. There were startled yelps and several growls of anger as Leah began slicing at every piece of flesh that blocked her away from her Packmate, but they must have been ordered to or not willing to fight her, because they resorted to shoving her backwards by sheer numbers only.

Jack snarled and then stumbled as the other Alpha's teeth sliced deeper into his neck, Tupkuk seemingly intent on tearing the wolf's head from his shoulders.

Renesmee saw this, but Sims saw this too, and with a snarl even more feral that her own wolf's, Jake's imprint shook as if she was seizing and then finally began to phase. Where the rest of the Pack's phasing was a beautiful instantaneous thing, Renesmee heard Sims's bones crack slower, some softer and some louder than others as her body fought to change its form. In two strides she had phased, but the pain of the changing must have been terrible in that two strides, and the dark chocolate colored wolf left remaining was a snarling mass of trembling muscles, shaking limbs, and wild eyes.

Oh, but Sims was fast, and even as Leah forced her way through the confused and yelping Calgary wolves and darted for the Alpha, the smaller she-wolf lunged for Tupkuk too.

Jack went down, finally giving a soft whine of pain as his legs gave out beneath him.

Only the twin steel grey wolves would fight the she-wolves, and Renesmee watched wide-eyed as one of them bowled Sims over before she could reach Tupkuk, going down in a tangle of teeth and claws. Leah had the other twin snapping at her flanks to drive her off, but she ignored it, diving for Tupkuk's belly and coming up underneath him. The Alpha had to release Jack to protect himself from her, still managing to have his abdomen sliced deeply from her fangs raking through his flesh.

Tupkuk snarled and jumped back, watching Leah warily. Renesmee's wolf was trying to gain his feet but was struggling, bleeding heavily from his ruff, and Leah stood stiff legged between him and Tupkuk. The she-wolf wrinkled her lips back from her teeth, hackles raised and blood dripping from her muzzle as she advanced on the Alpha. Growling in frustration, Tupkuk drew his Pack backwards, giving way.

It was clear that like the rest of his Pack, Tupkuk had no desire to fight the she-wolves, and the one twin wolf that had fought with Leah fell back at his Alpha's side, called to heel. The other seemed to be having problems disengaging from Sims, the tiny she-wolf seemed to have lost her mind and was flat out trying to kill him. The two were a jumble of legs and fangs and tails, and Tupkuk snarled at Leah pointedly. Trembling as if torn, Leah abandoned her position in front of Jack and shoved herself into the fight, getting a slash in her shoulder from her own Packmate's teeth as Leah snapped her jaws in the second twin's face. The twin wolf growled in turn, but was wagging its tail almost playfully as it did so and took the chance to back off.

Sims tried to follow but was pushed sideways by Leah, their attention diverted as Renesmee's wolf rose unsteadily to his feet. Jack swayed once and then shook himself, as if trying to dry off. Blood splattered the ground, the scent of it in Renesmee's nostrils as her wolf began stalking toward the Alpha, the other Alpha lunging in to meet him—.

"Renesmee!" her mother gasped, snatching her up and dragging her backwards, but Renesmee was fighting her too, even as her Aunt Rose and Uncles Jasper and Emmett took up position protectively in front of them. The sheer number of wolves, almost all of them another Pack, left even her Aunt Rose looking frightened, and they were backing off quickly, as if hoping the wolf fight re-erupting between Jack and the Alpha would cause enough distraction that the Pack didn't notice them.

"Bella, get her out of here!" her father ordered, looking torn as he saw Jack, injured and bleeding, roll the Alpha by striking at Tupkuk's front legs and lunge in for the kill. The twin wolves broke rank and went for Jack, even as the she-wolves went for them, but the rest of the La Push Pack was there. The last thing Renesmee saw Jake's massive russet body bounding into the middle of the Pack before her coven had pulled her away. Then they were running through the forest, out of sight and to the side, making sure they were downwind of the wolves.

"Father, no!" Renesmee cried out, still trying to fight her family's grips. "Mister Jack and the Alpha are fighting each other! I have to get back!"

"Renesmee, quiet!" Her father snapped, much more angrily than she had ever heard him before. Seeing his face she understood, because the same expression was all over the rest of her coven's faces. "I can't listen to what's going on! Bella, put up a shield on all of us."

Renesmee's mother did as she was asked as her father swung around, crouching protectively as his eyes narrowed in concentration. Bella's face was tight with stress and she kept her arms locked around the no longer struggling Renesmee. All of the rest of her coven stood stock still, not making a sound. Finally Edward straightened, looking angry.

"Jack tried to kill that Alpha," her father explained tightly, "But Renesmee distracted him. He's lucky, Jacob thinks, but Jacob is furious. Apparently the Alpha came to fight Jacob, and Jack decided to take care of it for him."

"Is Jake okay?" Bella asked worriedly, and Renesmee's father's lips twisted slightly before smoothing.

Edward listened a moment, then he frowned. "Jacob's imprint's mind is all over the place, and Embry's not much better. It's hard to understand over those two, but the Alpha didn't know if Renesmee was a La Push ally, or they would have killed her. He gave her to Jack unharmed, and that should have been the end of it, but Jack pressed the matter. Jacob is taking Jack to task for not leaving with Renesmee."

"Daddy, that isn't Mister Jack's fault," Renesmee insisted, and her father eyed her flatly.

"Jacob was _scared_, Renesmee," he replied in a hard voice. "The same as we were. What were you thinking? I think saying that you could have been killed is a bit redundant at this point, and if that doesn't sink in, your Jack just could have had the same happen to him. Just because there are people who will save you doesn't mean you should put them in that position that they are forced to, Renesmee."

Renesmee's eyes filled with tears, whispering, "I'm sorry, Daddy."

"We don't give you rules to be harsh, Renesmee," Bella added unhappily. "We do it for your protection. For everyone's protection."

The young girl dropped her head even lower. "I know, Mommy…"

"Edward," Jasper said suddenly, and then her father's eyes widened in understanding.

Edward twisted towards his wife, saying, "Bella, get the shield down! Quickly, get the shield down!" Startled, Renesmee's mother did as asked, and then with a cry of alarm, her father twisted as Esme came bolting out of the woods. Bella had apparently been shielding behind them, and therefore Edward hadn't been able to hear the matriarch vampire's thoughts.

"Jasper!" Esme yelled out, sliding to a stop some several hundred yards away. "Alice had a vision! Neel got through and he's got Misty at the hospital! Alice and Carlisle were almost there but then he disappeared again! The Pack must be with her, but we need to help them cut him off!"

Renesmee's father was a vampire, so the blood couldn't drain from his face. However he looked at the direction of the Pack, and took a mental inventory of who was there and who wasn't, and the result made him look at his coven in horror. Then her father was running back towards the way Renesmee had come from, roaring, "_JACOB_!"

It would be the first time in his life that Tupkuk looked upon a Cold One and didn't try to kill it of his own choice. It would be the first time the two Packs would join together to face a common foe, and two ancient enemies would for the moment put down their hatred and run together instead, to try and save a young wolf that was facing that foe alone.

It would be the first time, but it would be too late. None of them would get to Collin in time to save him.

* * *

It was instinct that sent Collin running as fast as he could down the street, not even caring if someone saw him.

The scent of the leech was burning through Collin's nostrils, triggering an instinctive need to kill it. It was always like that, they always felt that need to destroy the vampires, and Collin's wolf had never once backed down from a kill. They were made for the hunt, made to take down their prey, and this specific prey had eluded them too many times. Collin's wolf wanted this Cold One to die, and it was determined that this time, not even a Packmate would stop it.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die," Collin breathed even as he ran, knowing that this was insane. This was the leech that had taken out their Beta, and this was _insane_. He couldn't kill it, he was still a pup, still one of the weaker wolves in the Pack.

Collin's wolf had no interest in listening to his human's fear. They could smell their prey, so much closer—

As Collin darted around the corner, sidestepping a car as he plunged across the street and into the Fork's Hospital parking lot. He burst through the emergency room doors and ran through the waiting room, cursing as he stumbled into the last row of chairs. There were smells here, so many smells that burned strongly in his nostrils, but over the nurses cries of alarm as he forced his way into the emergency wing, knocking people and things over in his panic, Collin finally heard it. _They_ heard it, muffled and soft but so full of terror.

They heard her scream.

It had happened before, and this time it was as if a floodgate opened between Collin and his wolf, blending the both into one mind, one body that needed to function better than they ever had before. Both wolf and man were young, but they were strong and they were fast, and they didn't even try to conceal themselves as they plunged through the inner hallways of the hospital and into the back laboratories and office spaces. The scream came again, was silent for a moment, and then was followed by another even more terrified shriek that made Collin snap, and he simply tore the door off of its hinges as he forced his way into the locked lab room. The best thing he had ever smelled in his life was mingled with the worst thing he had ever smelled in his life and with a snarl, Collin saw that one of the small windows in the back wall had been broken, and there was blood on the remains of the glass.

Collin was a big wolf, but he lunged through the window, shattering what was left of the glass as he forced his way through. He staggered to his feet on the damp spring grasses that grew between the back of the hospital and the woods that lay just beyond. The leech had known he was coming and was fleeing with her, whoever she was, but it only had a moment's head start, and it was burdened down where Collin was not.

As he ran, Collin listened to the frightened woman's heart racing, smelled her blood, used it to give himself courage and strength. How terrified she must feel. How terrible this moment must be for her. Collin's own fear was strong, but he was wolf. He was _made_ for this shit.

_They were Tlokwali, _his wolf knew_,__and had always been made to take down their enemies_.

There was a glimpse of movement in the trees, and Collin knew he was closing in. He was just about to surge forward with an extra burst of speed when a warning snapped in his head. Just before it was too late, Collin hit the brakes and swerved, just barely avoiding the vampire that had stopped dead in its tracks. Collin skidded and slid to a crouching stop, hand on the ground and snarling in hatred as he locked eyes with the vampire that had taken so much from them.

"I'm going to kill you," Collin promised as he rose from his partial crouch. "But if you let her go, I'll make it hurt less."

The vampire laughed, a slightly insane sound, and he lifted the woman up by her arm, letting her dangle a few feet off of the ground. She fought, kicking and screaming despite the fact that she was bleeding badly from her neck and glass slices on her face and arms, but she still fought him. But she was a human, and she couldn't stop a vampire, no matter how much adrenaline she had pumping through her veins. Neel shook her again, swinging her the way one would swing a toy with an idle playfulness that showed the vampire didn't care how much pain it was causing her.

The woman seemed to realize that Collin was there, and she begged him through shaking teeth, "Run…_run_."

It was then that Collin knew that he was going to save her. He wanted to look at her, to look her in the eyes and promise her that everything was going to be okay, that he was there now and shit looked bad but that it would all be okay. However there was a lesson that Collin had learned the hard way. _Never_ take your eyes off of a vampire. So he didn't. Instead he slunk sideways, his movements slow and deceptively relaxed as he forced his fear down into his belly and hardened his courage.

Neel's eyes brightened with a strange light, and he licked the blood off of his lips before grinning madly. It occurred to Collin that as smart as the leech was, as many times it had gotten past them, it wasn't just intelligent and skilled. This vampire was insane.

The hair rose on the back of Collin's neck when Neel winked at him, but the young wolf kept his eyes locked on his prey, refusing to give in beneath a new wave of anger and fear.

"You're interrupting our reunion, dog," Neel chuckled, the first time that Collin had ever heard the vampire speak. He had a heavy English accent, one not softened at all by the time spent overseas. "I put a lot of effort into getting her again, and you're ruining the moment."

"I'll work on my manners for next time," Collin snarled back, squaring off with the vampire. Instinct told him that the Packmind would be chaos right now and he needed to wait until the last possible moment to phase. "So she's what you were after? She's why you killed our people?"

Neel dangled the woman again, seeming amused by her pain as she screamed when he shook her, her arm now dislocated. He adjusted the leg that he was carrying, changing the angle in which it was propped up on his shoulder. "Mostly. My maker cut a deal with me. He let me know the trick of hiding among you, how to keep out of the seer's eyes in exchange for taking out that tan wolf of yours. Not sure why it mattered, but we both got what we wanted. De Vaena always was too lazy to do his own dirty work."

Neel hoisted the woman closer and lapped at the wound on her neck, his eyes deceptively half lidded. Her sobs of terror were quieter now, and Collin realized that the woman was going to go into shock soon. His rage grew, but as it did, he grew calmer, eyes gleaming as he observed this enemy.

"Seth didn't die," Collin said tauntingly as he stalked closer, watching the vampire without blinking. "I'll make sure to let him know you thought of him before I tore your head off."

"Run…_please_," the woman whimpered to him, trying one last time before her eyes rolled up in her head and she went limp. Neel sighed in annoyance and dropped her to the ground, glancing at her to make sure that she hadn't died on him yet. In that split second, Collin phased and lunged at the vampire.

If Collin had been a lone wolf, in that moment, Neel would have died. Unfortunately Collin wasn't a lone wolf. It was true what he had predicted, the Packmind was chaos, but it was chaos because of the amount of wolves that were blended. It wasn't just his own Pack that was trying to get to him, to help him before this vampire killed him. It was another Pack too, and in that moment where their fear and their anger at this vampire coalesced into a surging rush of fury, Collin felt his concentration slip.

His teeth snapped deeply into Neel's shoulder, causing the vampire to stagger sideways and drop the leg Neel was carrying. The vampire snarled in fury and struck Collin a crushing blow to the ribs, sending Collin falling sideways, yelping in pain. Faster than any vampire that Collin had fought, Neel was on him. Collin heard Paul's roar in his head, felt his mentor's helpless terror as Collin went down, the vampire's fangs flashing.

He was going to die, because he couldn't get out of the vampire's way in time. Those teeth would slice into him and he would die.

Collin's wolf wasn't interested in dying before this one did, so they phased back human, feeling Neel's teeth snap together right where their leg had just been.

The change in shape cause the vampire to lose his balance and fall forward on a hand, braced overtop of Collin, and the young wolf slammed a fist into the vampire's skull, knocking him off. Collin's side flared in intense pain, the vampire must have shattered several of his ribs, but he still managed to phase back, leaping at Neel. He caught the vampire's spine, his jaws raking across Neel's back, and this time it was the vampire that screamed. He twisted to fling Collin off, but the young wolf knew that he had the vampire in the one place it couldn't get him with its fangs. Collin scrambled and dug his claws into the vampire's shoulders and legs, trying to get the leverage his teeth into Neel's neck, determined to take the vampire's head off.

With another scream Neel got a hand into Collin's front leg and slung the wolf off of his back, slamming him heavily into the ground. Collin felt something else crack, felt his Alpha shove the entire Pack's strength his way to keep him conscious, twisted at the last second to avoid the granite hard hand trying to punch through his belly. Collin's teeth found leg and snapped shut, ripping a massive hunk out of the back of Neel's thigh. A howl echoed in the distance, followed by more than Collin had ever heard before. Then everything started to darken, and Collin realized that the crack had been his head.

_Get up get up get up_, someone was chanting, and Collin thought that maybe it was Seth.

In Collin's mind, his Alpha had tried to protect Collin by cutting off everyone but Jake himself, Seth, and Paul. Paul was praying that his pup could hold this demon off a little longer, so angry that Collin had somehow blasted through Jake's order to fall back. Jake was throwing everything he had into keeping Collin conscious and it was making his guarding of Collin's mind slip. A soft whisper, almost muted into nothingness. Brady wasn't ready for Collin to die. Many voices, voices that had run and hunted and taken down their prey for centuries, echoing at the same time. Fight harder, brother, we are coming.

Two voices, with more experience between them than any other wolves that lived, speaking in tandem. _**Go for his hip**_.

A vampire's hip was a weakness. The limbs could move even injured, but the joints moved the limbs. Half blinded by his dizziness, Collin trusted himself, trusted his wolf to find their enemy, and he lunged. The vampire had frozen at the sound of the Packs converging upon them, and Neel realized too late that Collin was attacking. Collin's jaws sank into Neel's left hipbone, and the vampire snarled in pain, stumbling backwards and falling beneath Collin's weight. Neel's hands grabbed for Collin's jaws, his strength forcing them open and Collin tried to hang on, but the vampire wedged his good foot beneath Collin's belly and kicked with all his might. This time when Collin hit, he took the brunt of it on his broken ribs and stayed down, the wind knocked out of him.

Neel started forward, but stumbled. Wounded badly and realizing that a mass of wolves were descending upon them, Neel turned and darted for the woman. It was too late, though, because something gold and white flashed through the woods. Before Neel could grab her, the vampire came face to face with Carlisle Cullen, the coven leader crouching in front of the fallen woman protectively, his fangs extended as he hissed. Another flash, small with short dark hair, and Alice Cullen stepping next to her father, adding her own protective snarl.

Realizing that he was outnumbered, Neel roared in frustration and spun on his heel, grabbing up the leg from the dirt and fleeing into the forest. Alice tried to follow, but Carlisle grabbed her arm.

"No, Alice, we need to get out of here," Carlisle barked at her. "Misty's hurt badly and the Packs are coming…they won't stop and ask what side we're on—Collin, _no_!"

Collin ignored Carlisle's warning cry, because the young wolf had forced himself off of the ground and was in pursuit. The vampire had nearly torn his front leg off, and Collin could only run so fast on three paws, and his Alpha was roaring at him to back off, they were almost there. Another Alpha was doing the same, but Collin's wolf wasn't listening and Collin the man wasn't letting this fucker get away with this shit anymore. The trees flashed by as Neel flung himself through the woods, trying to shake this damn wolf that just wouldn't stay down. Driven wild by pain and fury at once more having lost his prey, Neel's was actually foaming at the mouth, snarling curse after curse at Collin. Another few strides and Neel twisted, eyes rolling wildly as he met Collin head on.

Even as his momentum took them tumbling, Collin felt something sharp slice down his side, and he figured that this was it. Leech venom would kill him, so he'd better finish this quick. Assuming he was dead already, Collin didn't even try to protect himself as he rolled and came up underneath Neel, phasing human one last time. With a snarl the young wolf locked his injured arm around Neel's back and braced his hand under the vampire's throat, eyes flashing in triumph.

"This is for Seth, motherfucker," Collin snarled, and with a mighty jerk, he tore the vampire's head off.

* * *

Alice could see that Carlisle was torn from the idea of leaving Collin to fight Neel alone, but the woman in his arms was too badly injured. Their family had been protecting Misty for a long time, and Alice knew that the woman staying alive was more important to Carlisle than making sure that Neel was dead, or that Collin wasn't. With a snarl, he lifted her up and began running back towards the hospital.

Alice inhaled, smelling the Packs coming, and she decided that her father was right. That many wolves…it was too many. They would kill Neel, but they may kill her as well.

"Stay alive, Collin," Alice whispered, feeling on the edge of tears, tears that would never fall from her vampire eyes. She backed off and then began to run towards the hospital after Carlisle, taking a wider route to carry her further from the wolves. Their presence was making it harder to focus, so she paused on the far side of the hospital grounds, closing her eyes and trying to find out what would happen. If she could see herself and her family later, she would know—

She would know that she wouldn't be there, because a few moments ago, Sulpicia had changed her minion's orders, and turned him from his task of taking Ricardo de Vaena to taking her. The blindness from the wolves all around meant that Alice knew this too late, and even as she took off running, that the Volturi vampire was right behind her. She saw what would happen, and let out a soft cry. As she made a dash for the hospital, it was her only chance, the pixie vampire had just enough time to pull out her phone and listen to the two rings before the answering machine picked up.

"_Cullen residence, please leave a message_."

"Don't follow me!" Alice cried into the machine. "The Volturi kill Ja—"

And then all she knew was darkness.

* * *

It was Paul that reached Collin first. The last thing Paul's pup had thought was that he had been bitten, and they had all heard Paul's mental scream of helpless rage. Jake tried to tell Paul that Collin was okay, that he was okay, but Paul wasn't listening. Instead the grey wolf streaked towards Carlisle and Alice Cullen, not even paying attention to them as Carlisle scooped Misty into his arms and ran with her back towards the hospital, Alice after a moment's hesitation doing the same.

He paused when he saw the remains of the vampire on the ground some several hundred yards later. Neel's head had been ripped from his body, and his torso damaged badly, as if someone had continued beating their fists into him after he had gone down. The vampire's left leg was shredded from hip to knee, and it wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. The Pack would burn it, destroy it the way it should have been destroyed a long time ago, so Paul ran on.

He ran, knowing that wherever his pup was, Paul was needed there too. The absolute helplessness at not being there sooner had torn Paul's insides to shred, and as Collin's scent filled his nostrils, Paul phased human, staggering into a small clearing with tears in his eyes. Collin was on the far side, on his knees and bent over at the waist. But instead of tremoring with the effect of leech poison running through his veins, instead of keeling over in agony, Collin was digging.

Collin was digging. The goddamn pup had scared the shit out of him, and he was _digging_?

"What the hell were you thinking?" Paul roared, striding across the clearing and trembling head to toe. "What the _hell_ were you thinking, Collin?" But Collin wasn't listening, instead he was using his good arm to scoop into the dirt, his bad arm hanging uselessly at his side. "Collin, what—"

Paul broke off midsentence as he closed in, and then his mouth clamped shut as he looked down at his pup. Silently, Paul told Jake to keep everyone away, to not come near them. Sick from his understanding, Jake swung the Pack wide, calling them back from the place Paul and Collin were standing. As the older wolf watched, Collin began crying, deep racking sobs that tore through the pup's shoulders, leaving his handsome face wet with tears.

"I had to kill him, Paul," Collin choked out, snuffling as he wiped his good arm across his face. "He was a monster, I had to kill him…"

Paul was quiet, and then he sank down to his knees next to Collin. The pup was badly injured, bleeding from his head and more so from his side, where Neel's hand had sliced into him. "Let me help, Collin," Paul said softly, but Collin jerked away, turning a shoulder to Paul.

"No!" Collin snarled, and then the young wolf started crying harder as he continued to dig. "No, he was a monster, and I had to kill him. And I have to…I have to do this too."

Paul made a soft soothing noise in his throat but kept his distance, watching the tears continue to roll down Collin's face. Adrenaline and something else was rolling through Collin's system, leaving him looking more devastated than Paul had ever seen. But his eyes were angry, so angry.

"This was someone. This was _someone_," Collin said brokenly, wiping his face again, trying to clear it of tears. "This was someone, and it's too late for them. We were too late. We're always too fucking little, too fucking late. I hate them. I hate us. _I hate this_. I don't want to see this shit anymore. We're always too _late_."

"I know, kid," Paul rumbled quietly, watching sadly. "I know." He wanted to say more, but it wasn't the time, wasn't the place. Instead Paul waited, waited as Collin finished burying the leg that Neel had been carrying, the young wolf's eyes haunted and in pain as he pressed his hand to the dirt. Then he sat back and began shaking, his sobs quieter as he covered his face with his arm. Never had Collin looked younger, looked as lost as he did right now.

This time when Paul reached for his pup, Collin pressed his face into Paul's shoulder and wept.

* * *

Alice was gone. To say that the coven was devastated was a gross understatement.

Collectively, they had never been so angry, because in taking one of their own, the coven felt as if the Volturi had as good as declared war upon them. In taking Alice, their hearts had been wounded deeply. The tiny vampire was dearly loved, and they felt her loss keenly.

Instrumental in all of their coven's concerns, it was difficult to strategize without Alice's vision for guidance. It was clear that the coven had come to rely on her foresight too much, and was unaccustomed to functioning without a clear warning of what they faced. For days they fought and argued as to what to do, how to circumvent Alice's warning, but there wasn't any way. Jasper refused to not follow his wife to Europe, desperate to save her, but two nights into the hunt, he and Emmett were ambushed by the Volturi and both nearly killed before they managed to escape. Everywhere they stepped, it seemed as if their enemies were waiting. It only made sense, Carlisle admitted. With just a touch, Aro could see Alice's premonitions after she had them, and with her sight in combination with his own gifts, he was omniscient.

The Cullens were blinded.

Renesmee had spent the better part of a week analyzing everything that had happened, trying to understand if by causing the distraction with the Calgary Pack if she had caused her Aunt to be kidnapped. In the end she was simply too scared to think logically and had instead sought the refuge of her wolf's presence. For once no one insisted on the separation, so for the rest of that week Renesmee stayed curled up in a tight little ball beneath her wolf's arm, her cheek pressed to his ribs as she huddled at his side. She cried often because she was scared, but she tried to do so silently, so not to disturb anyone.

Every so often Renesmee's wolf would drag a thumb across her tearstained cheek, murmuring softly to her in Quileute. However, just because she knew what he was saying didn't make it any easier to be any less scared. Finally the coven called a meeting with the local Alpha, in an official capacity. When Jake, Seth, and Paul stepped in the door, her wolf dipped his head respectfully but stayed where he was on the couch with Renesmee.

Jake looked at Jack and then then nodded curtly. "Jack? Go back to the reservation."

Renesmee's wolf started to rise instinctively, but then he hesitated, looking down at her. The young girl tried to smile reassuringly, but her wolf didn't look convinced. The Alpha's growl deepened. "That's not a suggestion, Jack, _go home_."

The ancient wolf tried to fight the order but couldn't. He was not upset enough to have his mind lost to him, and the Alpha had maintained an invisible chokehold on Jack ever since Jack had tried to fight Jake's battles for him. Renesmee had learned that for as loving as her Alpha was, he was also very heavy handed when it came to what he disagreed with. Jake had been forced to withdrawn his claim of fault with Tupkuk to account for the fact that Jack had still attacked the other Packleader, even after Renesmee had been returned to him unharmed as soon as Tupkuk had been aware of her imprint status.

Tupkuk had made it clear that Renesmee disgusted him, but as an imprint, he had felt required to keep her safe.

The Calgary Alpha had been furious to learn that Neel had hidden himself in the tracks of the Pack, and Tupkuk blamed himself for having only taken half of his wolves with him when traveling. The wolves that he could trust, Tupkuk had left in Calgary, but the ones that needed his constant attention had come with him. Chitakido's legacy was too many wolves with too many problems, and the new Calgary Alpha had been distracted in his attempts to heal their souls and their minds through better leadership. Tupkuk felt that if he had brought his entire Pack, the more experienced ones could have been trusted to range out further and catch the slippery Cold One, but Tupkuk had worried that the La Push Alpha would already feel their numbers could be construed as a show of aggression.

Because of Jake's declaration of fault, Tupkuk had intended on fighting the La Push Alpha if necessary, but had ordered all of his wolves to be on their best behaviors and to not attack Jake even if Tupkuk had fallen. Apparently Jack had not been on as good of behavior.

The Packs had parted ways with an uneasy understanding. No one was killing anyone, and both Alphas would try to restrain their wolves better. No one was happy, but this time no one was dead. It was Pack politics, and while they didn't always make sense to Renesmee, she had learned that in helping try and protect Collin, the Calgary Alpha had earned Jake's grudging respect.

By the way the Alpha was looking at her wolf now, Renesmee wondered if Jake's respect for Jack had slipped.

When the Alpha ordered him to leave, Jack had no choice but to do as Jake commanded. It was her mother that stopped him, rising gracefully to her feet. "Jake, please let him stay. Renesmee's been so upset…we all have been. Please, Jake."

It was an unspoken acknowledgment, but it was there. Renesmee could see a funny expression cross over the Alpha's face, and then he nodded curtly. "Yeah, yeah...fine, Bells."

Jack sank back down, but this time to his heels, staying partially in front of Renesmee. She pressed a hand to his ruined shoulder worriedly, but besides folding her fingers together over her palm, he didn't acknowledge her silent question. Renesmee didn't mind, she knew he would answer her later, if it was something that he was able to answer. The three leaders of the Pack shifted into the living room, their choice to remain nearer to the couch than any other piece of furniture a clear indication of whose side they were on. Allies or not, Renesmee realized that there would always be a wall between the people that mattered the most to her. She wondered if at some point her side had been chosen for her… or if like so many walls in history, this wall could be broken too.

Carlisle cleared his throat, glanced at his coven, and then seemed to make a decision. "I told you that we would explain why we kept what Neel wanted a secret from you, Jacob," Carlisle began, but Jake cut him off with a curt shake of his head.

"We needed to know before the leech got to her, Carlisle, not after," Jake said harshly. "It's done now. Is she okay?"

"She's in pain but she's alive. Your wolf kept her safe we when did not, and I cannot express how grateful we are to Collin. We made sure to take out the security tapes at the hospital to protect his identity. Is he—?"

The Alpha crossed his arms over his chest, looking for all the world as belligerent as he had ever looked. "He's a seventeen year old kid who just buried someone's dried up leg, doc. How the hell do you think he's doing?"

"Jake, the reason we kept your wolves out of it was because we couldn't let Alice be blinded—" Esme started, and then her voice choked up and she turned away, obviously deeply upset.

Jake's face softened but both Seth and Paul remained silent figures flanking him. "It's over and done with, Esme," the Alpha said in a gentler tone. "Neel is dead, and we already knew he was using the wolves to hide himself from us. It just never occurred to us that he'd do the same with Calgary. But that isn't what this is about. Just say it, Carlisle."

Renesmee's grandfather went very still and then he said in the softest of voices, "My daughter was taken, Jacob, and with her sight, they will always be a step ahead of us. I don't have the sheer numbers to take on the Volturi, we are few and they have control of most of the world's covens. Anything we try to do, Aro will always be able to see. Except, as always, for meetings like these."

The young girl's mind was quick and she put together what her grandfather was asking. With a cry of hope she started to her feet. "Grandpa, Jake could help us get Aunt Alice back!" Renesmee said, looking at her Alpha with big brown eyes. "Jake, the Pack always gave Aunt Alice blind spots. We could go with the Pack to Italy and having the wolves there would mean the Volturi wouldn't know we were coming—"

She trailed off as she realized that Seth was looking at her with a mixture of pain and sympathy in his eyes, and even Paul looked unhappy. Jake bowed his head and then raised his eyes to Carlisle.

"I'm sorry," Jake said in a tight voice. "I can't." Renesmee realized that the belligerence that Jake had been showing had been more than just an angry Alpha dealing with her coven. Her Alpha was angry at himself for saying it, angrier as he added, "_We_ can't. I'm sorry."

Renesmee's Aunt Rose pursed her lips tightly, and then turned and walked out of the room wordlessly. Carlisle nodded as if he had expected this, and Renesmee saw the glimmer of hope that had been in her father's eyes fade. Her mother just looked confused.

"Jake," Bella said, stepping up to him and placing a hand on his arm, her face hurt. "Jake, I know you don't like our family because of what we are, but _please_. Please, this is Alice and we love her. _Please_ help us," she begged.

The young girl had always known that her mother and Jake had a deep bond of friendship between them, and that the Alpha loved her mother very much. So she could see the Alpha wavering, his face twisting in pain.

"Bells…" Jake groaned miserably, the front of strong, angry Alpha breaking down and Renesmee realized that she had to look away. She didn't know why until she realized that her Packmates were doing the same, their eyes on the ground and their teeth grinding.

"I would go," he promised her, voice lowering. "You _know_ I would go, Bells. I'd take the fight to those fuckers in a heartbeat, but Seth still gets tired just after a couple hours of patrol, and it'll be too much for him after a day or two if he tried to hold the Pack for me. We had two new wolves phase, plus with Embry and Samantha how they are…it's straining even me. Paul wouldn't be able to hold them."

Renesmee knew that Jake wasn't putting his wolves down, he was just trying to explain, but Paul still ducked his head and Seth gritted his teeth even harder. "If my ass hadn't been stupid," the Beta whispered. "Dammit, Edward, you know I could have fixed this…" Jake touched a hand to Seth's shoulder and the Beta immediately quieted.

"Bells, the Pack would fall apart, and it would leave them at risk," Jake said, his voice firming. "And if I can't go, I'm not telling them to go. Even with all of you, it's a damn suicide mission. I'd take that risk, but I won't let them. I knew this shit was coming, and Seth and Paul both volunteered to go in my stead, but I won't let them. We're allies, but they don't owe that much to you. We've lost two lives to the leeches this year already, and I'm not adding more if I can help it. I'm sorry, but I just can't let them."

Renesmee felt her hope, so quickly raised, slip away into that same fearfulness of before, that lack of knowing which was so terrible to her. She didn't realize that she had pressed herself into her wolf's back, or that she was crying silent tears, her face hidden away against russet skin. Jack made another soft shushing noise, and Seth looked over at her unhappily.

"We understand, Jacob," her father said softly, taking hold of Bella's arm and drawing her gently away from Jake. "There is too much at stake for you. We had to ask, but we understand."

Jake grimaced and then looked at Carlisle. "If my refusal of aid means an end of this treaty, I want my wolf out of here. He shouldn't have to face his own imprint's family."

Carlisle stepped forward and placed a hand on the Alpha's shoulder. "You protect your own, as we do, Jacob," Carlisle said quietly, glancing over at his wife for Esme's nod of acknowledgement. "As the leaders of this coven, we understand that and the treaty still stands. Right now we need allies just as much as you do."

Jake nodded, deliberately avoiding looking at Bella as Carlisle stepped back, giving the wolves room.

Edward cleared his throat, drawing Jake's attention. "The rest of us will go to Europe, then, and we will try our best to get Alice back. Jasper and Emmett don't even think she's in Italy anymore, but no one knows for sure. Jacob, Bella and I already discussed this and we want to leave Renesmee here with you and your Pack. She will be safer here."

"Of course, Edward," Jake said simply.

Her father turned to Jack, his eyes pained. "I will never like the fact that you imprinted on my child, wolf, but you have protected her since you met her. You have been kind to her, and these coming times will be hard on her. Please take care of her."

Renesmee had known that this could be coming. While her wolf had laid out on the back porch beneath her windowsill, sleeping and recovering from the remaining wounds of his mauled neck, her parents had sat down with her last night and told her they may leave her to go try and save Alice.

Her wolf, however, seemed surprised. He looked down at her, and Renesmee tried very hard to smile at him, but that smile never managed to reach her lips. In truth she was terrified, because it seemed that not only was her Aunt Alice in trouble, but that everyone that she had grown up with would soon be in the same trouble as well. Renesmee was very, very afraid.

Her wolf continued to watch her, and she finally managed to force the smile on her face, but then it crumbled and she bit her lower lip hard to stop from crying. There were enough tears streaking down her face. He closed his eyes briefly, and Renesmee realized that for her wolf, a decision had just been made.

"I will not, Cold One," Jack finally said, rising to his feet. Edward blinked and then seemed to grow angry, but Renesmee's mother made a soft noise, one that sounded like desperate hope. Jack ignored them both. "Alpha," he said respectfully, and a tremor rolled through Jake's body. "I wish to go on my own in search of my imprint's coven mate."

"No," Jake snapped. "No way."

Seth shared a look with Paul, and then the Beta frowned. "It's suicide, Jack," Seth spoke simply, shaking his head. "Even if you fight your way into the Volturi, every single one of them will be able to smell you coming miles away. If anyone's not getting out of this kind of thing, it's the wolf that goes. That's why Jake's saying no."

"They've treated you like shit," the Alpha added in a low growl. "You don't owe them this."

The Third was watching Jack and Renesmee closely and then he sighed. "It doesn't matter, Jake," Paul said quietly. "Look at her. He's not doing it for them, he's doing it for her. Fuck if I wouldn't do the same thing for Cass, too. She thinks she's going to lose her family, man."

The Alpha trembled again, glaring furiously at Jack. "_No!_" he bellowed, making Jack flinch, and Renesmee saw her wolf drop his eyes to Jake's jaw. The Alpha turned baleful eyes Edward's way. "And Bells isn't going either, no fucking way."

Both Bella and Edward glared at him, but Jake just glared right back, furious and unbending.

"Alpha…" Jack tried again, but Jake was having none of it.

He pointed a finger Jack's way and snarled, "Sit down, Jack! None of my wolves are going, you included!"

Jack had to sit down, but he did so with as much pride and dignity as he could, sinking to his knees in front of his Alpha. Renesmee would be an adult long before she learned how much her wolf's next words cost him. The ancient wolf raised his eyes to his Alpha for the first time and said simply, "Then I cannot be your wolf, Alpha."

There was silence as Jake froze, turning shocked towards his wolf. Jack shuddered and looked beseechingly at his Alpha, as if begging Jake to understand. "But I am grateful, Alpha…and I have…to run with you has been…" Jack's rough voice choked up and then he clamped his lips together and said nothing, dropping his gaze again.

Jake began to tremble, looking wild about the eyes. It only then occurred to Renesmee that she had never seen Jake scared before. She realized that in letting Jack go, Jake truly thought Jack would die. Seth and Paul were staring at Jack in shock, as if he had said something that they couldn't believe.

Renesmee would always wonder if she did pick a side that day, because she could have begged her wolf to stay at home, and she thought that maybe he would have listened. But she didn't, because she was still a young girl, and the thought of her parents going off to war with only Alice's promise that they shouldn't frightened her terribly. And she believed in her wolf, believed that if he thought this was the best, then it must be.

Mustn't it?

"If something happens to you, what will happen to my daughter, Jack?" Edward asked softly, and Jack didn't answer immediately. Instead he waited until Jake nodded tightly, and then Jack glanced over at Renesmee.

"Our imprinting is mostly one-sided," Jack said in his quiet voice. "She will always hurt at my loss, but it will be a single hurt, instead of many. At this point, the loss of her coven will hurt her more deeply. It is better this way, father of my imprint."

"Jack, you don't have to do this," Seth growled, shifting and glaring at the coven. "We can figure out some other way to help them."

Paul growled and shook his head. "We've already talked about this all night. It's one thing to protect our borders and another to deliberately incite a war before we're ready. Do you really want to bring the Volturi on our doorstep right now? We can barely hold our own with the other Packs. But if they can find a way around the smell, it might be easier for Jack to get in and out than one of the rest of us. He's our best fighter."

"Have you lost your fucking mind, Paul?" Jake snarled back, eyes flashing. "I don't give a shit if he's our best fighter, he's lost in fucking lala land half the time! He's our most submissive wolf, and I'm supposed to let him do this shit? No, no fucking way."

The Alpha was livid, and Renesmee didn't know what to think. She had seen his temper, yes, but this was more than she had ever experienced with Jake. It was as if the thought of sending Jack alone left him unhinged. Renesmee didn't realize that she was moving until she already started walking towards her wolf. Even bowed like this, he was as tall as her, and Renesmee touched her closed hand to his tricep.

"Jacob?" Renesmee said softly. "You told me that I was supposed to have some faith in myself. I've been trying, and I still don't know who or what I really am, but I know Mister Jack. I have faith in him. If he thinks he can help rescue Aunt Alice, I think he can too. I believe in him."

"Nessie, you can't pressure Jake to make this decision," Carlisle told her gently. "It's not fair."

But she already had, and she could see the effect her words had on the Alpha. He was staring at Jack, his expression almost sick. Her wolf kept his eyes down, but she could see something in them was startled, as if he was hearing something entirely unexpected.

"You're _not_ leaving this Pack," Jake snapped, and there was silence across the room as Jake began to shake harder, the Alpha pacing around the room.

"I won't shame you, Alpha," Jack promised softly, watching his Alpha unhappily. "I will do this thing honorably."

"I don't give a flying fuck about honor!" Jake roared, and then when the submissive wolf flinched badly, the Alpha forced himself to be calmer, although it was obvious that inside he was seething. "Jack, you're my most submissive wolf. It is my job to make sure that over everyone else, I protect you. So how the hell am I supposed to let you go? How the hell am I supposed to live with myself if you never come back?"

Jack was quiet for a moment, and then he raised sympathetic eyes to his Alpha. "I know this is hard for you, but it was hard for every Alpha that has ever led the Tlokwali, brother. We are yours to protect, but you are _ours_ to fight for. Your allies are ours to fight for. It will be painful for you to learn this, Alpha, but there will be times when you have to let us fight, and if it happens, die for you. It is a good death to die for your Alpha. It is a good death to die for your imprint. I am not afraid."

Renesmee felt her heart break at that, and she didn't know what she should do. She didn't want Mister Jack to get hurt, but she didn't want her whole coven to go into a fight with an enemy that knew they were coming. Statistically, it was a bad deal all around.

Jake finally snarled and punched the wall behind him. Shoulders trembling in fury, Jake pulled his hand out of the wall and clenched it into a drywall dust covered fist. "You say your goodbyes, brother, and get your things," Jake barked. "Then you meet me at the border. You and I have some shit we need to discuss before you leave, but you're _mine_, Jack. You're not leaving the Pack over this shit. You live and you die _my_ wolf. _Do you understand me?_"

"Yes, Alpha."

Renesmee watched her wolf practically put his face in his knees, body bowing beneath the Alpha's anger. With that, the Alpha stalked out, leaving a stunned coven in his wake. Silently, Jack rose to his feet. Seth hissed between his breath, but then followed Jake, Paul at his heels. Both looked almost as unhappy as Jake did, but in different ways.

There was silence in the coven as Jack turned to them, looking somewhat shaken. Esme stepped forward, a look of sympathy on her face. She opened her mouth to speak but someone else beat her to it.

"Thank you."

It was Rosalie, her beautiful face tight with suppressed emotion. "We leave tomorrow morning. Emmett and Jasper are in hiding, but we have means of getting ahold of them. We'll get you any identification you need, Jack."

"I will not go with you," Jack said simply, causing Renesmee's coven to look at him in confusion. "I will find your coven mate on my own. In taking her, our enemies now know too much about us. If you disappear from them, they will know that you are with a wolf, and that will put my Pack at risk. Continue to search for her, but do so safely. There is only so much loss my imprint should have to take."

They shared looks of consternation, and Edward shook his head. "Jack, this is the _Volturi_. How will you even know where to start looking without us?"

Jack didn't answer, but Renesmee saw him turn his eyes to her. His face softened and he went to her, crouching down and touching a thumb to her cheek. "I will leave today, imprint," Jack told her softly. "But I would ask one thing of you."

Renesmee wiped off her eyes, not realized how wet her face was, and she nodded. "Of course, Mister Jack," she whispered. Reality was sinking in, the reality that he was going and might never come back. She would do whatever he needed her to do, she decided bravely, but then her wolf asked her the one thing, the one thing that she never wanted to do ever again.

"Hunt with me, Renesmee."

And so she did.

* * *

The child was shaken, deeply so, but Jack knew that this may be his last chance to help her. He had made the most of the time he had been given, but had planned on waiting until her thirst was more controlled, but it was time. Her family left them alone, a final concession that would have been appreciated a long time ago, but Jack was no long resentful of it. Things were as they were, and the time he had spent with her had been good.

He would have to be content.

For the first time, the young girl and the ancient wolf walked through the woods unbothered, and there was no one to cough pointedly when she slipped her tiny hand into his larger one. Renesmee was still crying, although she was trying to contain her small snuffles, and it only stopped when they caught the scent of a buck a few miles away. Jack could see the child hesitate, but he looked at her and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Hunt with me, imprint," he encouraged her again, releasing her hand and pivoting on his heel. His imprint followed, her little feet flying over the grass to catch up with him, and when he shifted to the left in response to the buck's far off snort of fear, she shifted in tandem. For a moment they ran side by side, the wind in their hair and the sun beating down warm upon their skin, and it was a moment that the ancient wolf would keep locked in his heart forever.

This imprint had been strange and unexpected, but Jack decided that it had been good for both of them.

And then they were upon the buck, the creature crashing through the brush far too slow to escape them. The child knew how to hunt, even if she hated it, so she immediately went to hamstring the animal with her razor sharp teeth, but Jack signaled her to fall back instead. The ancient wolf lunged, his strong arms catching the creature about the torso and neck, lifting it up off the ground so that its wildly kicking legs didn't become damaged. The buck snorted and panted, twisting, but Jack continued to hold it above the ground, his half-Cold One imprint watching him curiously. Finally the buck grew too frightened and froze, and it was only then that Jack laid it to the ground, straddling it's shoulders and pinning it carefully at its throat and chest.

"Renesmee, come here," he told her, and the child did as he asked. The deer's eyes rolled white with fear, and Jack made a soft noise of comfort in his throat. Renesmee's face turned sad, and she touched the buck lightly on the antler and then again on the reddish-tan head.

"It's so scared, Mister Jack," she said quietly, and Jack nodded.

"It knows that you can kill it, imprint." Jack turned and looked at her solemnly. "It knows that it is helpless and weak now, when it was strong and capable only moments before. What you choose to kill has a spirit, and that spirit must be honored. Everything that lives must one day die, Renesmee, but we must be thankful for the lives that we take, for it is a blessing that they would die to keep us alive. Feed, imprint, and we will give thanks to the spirit of the deer that fed you."

Renesmee looked at him, her face twisting as she whispered, "I don't want to kill it."

Jack smiled at her, a full real smile, and he winked at her. "I said _feed_, Renesmee, not kill. You always seem to forget that it is _your_ choice who you are, what you want, what actions you take. Feed, because his heart slows and he grows too frightened."

So Renesmee dipped her head, and Jack could see her fangs pierce the throat of the buck. He knew that those fangs wouldn't hurt, at least, not until she began to pull as she drank. Then she lifted her head away, cheeks flushed with the health that came with her drinking. "Thank you," she told the deer softly, and Jack repeated her words in Quileute before carefully helping the buck to its feet. It was shaky, frightened, but the child had not taken enough to weaken it too much. With a snort, the buck rolled its eyes at them, walked a few tentative steps, and then darted away.

Renesmee watched it disappear into the brush and then turned back to Jack, setting back on her heels and looking at him with even more tears in her eyes. She had cried for so long, and it was time that he, her wolf, did something about it. Before he could ask her to tell him what she was feeling, Renesmee broke the silence.

"Mister Jack, please be careful," she whispered, the fear of the unknown too much for the child, causing her head to bow and her voice to break. "You're my best friend…what if something bad happens to you?"

Jack knelt down next to her and rested his hand gently on the crown of her head. Softly he spoke to her in Quileute, "Don't be frightened, imprint. I won't be frightened if you won't be frightened either."

"We can be not scared together," she breathed. Then Renesmee raised courageous eyes to his, and she nodded, repeating in a firmer voice, "We can be not scared together, Mister Jack."

"With everything that I am, I will fight to return, Renesmee," he promised her in his low rough voice. "If I do not, then know you have been a great blessing to me, and that I am at peace with the times we have spent. We will run together in the next life, imprint."

She sniffed and then gave him a tremulous smile. "If you can keep up, Mister Jack," Renesmee said, and Jack suddenly laughed. It was the first time he could remember doing so since he had left the Tlokwali, and on impulse he dropped a kiss to the crown of her head.

"There is that," he admitted with a chuckle, "There is that."

Renesmee gave him another little smile and said, "We should probably get back home so you can get ready to go, Mister Jack." Then the young girl stood up and offered him her hand, and Jack accepted it. His imprint reeked of worry, but she led him back to the coven and didn't say anything more about her fears. He left her on her porch steps, a lonely little girl now stripped of her only friend, but she still waved to him goodbye and wished him well.

Jack was a man who had always clung too tightly to the things he cherished the most. It was quite possible that her willingness to let him go had been the bravest thing he had ever experienced.

* * *

The Alpha was waiting for him at the border.

Jack had his things, few as they were. The coven had promised to make sure that his horses were tended, and beyond that, Jack owned nothing that he could not carry. Dressed in a breech clout and leggings, with a small bag slung over his shoulder, the ancient wolf walked silently over to his Alpha, pausing and dropping down to his haunches respectfully.

"Get up, Jack."

The ancient wolf did as he was bidden, keeping his eyes lowered from his Alpha's. Behind Jake the rest of the Pack was gathered, wolf and imprint alike, but they stood back far enough for Jack to know that they would not be allowed to approach him. They were arranged by rank, a formality that only came with ceremony or great matters.

Realizing what was happening, Jack raised his eyes to his Alpha's quickly. The Alpha was standing with his legs braced apart and his arms crossed over his chest, and Jack realized that Jake was fighting not to let his emotions show.

"Give me the damn thing," Jake said gruffly. Jack felt himself shiver, not sure that he was ready, not sure that he would ever be ready. But his Alpha was waiting for him, his living Alpha, his real Alpha, and one did not keep an Alpha waiting. Still, Jack's hands seemed to have a hard time withdrawing the leather wrapped lump from his belongings, and he realized that his hands weren't particularly steady as he offered it to his Alpha. _His_ Alpha. His.

Jake unwrapped the lump as carefully as Jack had all these years. In it was a small piece of rock, once rough and sharp on the edges, now worn smooth as silk. Worn smooth by the same hand picking it up once a day for so many years. Worn smooth decades ago, back when Jack had thought that rough or smooth, he would no longer ever be able to return home. He would be outcast forever.

The Alpha balanced the rock in the palm of his hand, and then with a folding of his fingers, the last gift of T'sikáti, the greatest Alpha that any of them had previously known, was crushed into dust beneath Jacob Black's fist.

"When you come home, you're _home_, old wolf," Jake told him firmly. "You're Tlokwali, Jack. That title will never be stripped away from you again."

Jack watched the dust trickle down between the Alpha's fingertips. It caught in the wind, a wind that for a moment forgot to whisper his failings, and Jack wondered if this was what it had felt like to breathe. He could _breathe_.

"Yes, Alpha," Jack whispered, because that was the best he could do, but he leant down and brushed his fingers against the earth, knowing in his heart that whatever lay in the dark path ahead, he was no longer alone. These things could be braved.

His lips curving slightly, an ancient Tlokwali wolf turned and slipped away.

* * *

The young girl sat alone in her room, feeling more loneliness than she had ever known.

To try and distract herself from the fact that her wolf was gone, she sat quietly on her bed, his gift to her in her hands. It was a rock that had been glued back together after she had broken it, a rock she turned over and over, trying to understand it, trying to understand the wolf that she may never see again. Smooth and grey and uniform on the outside, with bright veins of broken color layered roughly within. In a world where the beauty surrounding the girl was always on the outside, hiding the monsters within, it was the antithesis of what a vampire was. It was the antithesis of what…she had always…striven for…

Suddenly a slow smile began to grow across Renesmee's face as her understanding grew.

The best parts of her had never been the smooth, appropriate exterior that she tried so hard to perfect. It was the roughness, the imperfection that lay hidden within that made her the most interesting. From the very beginning, her wolf had known who she really was. He had always known, he had just been waiting for her to see it herself. The rock was _her_.

Rising to her bare feet, not bothering if she was graceful or not, Renesmee headed out to the woods beside her house. The young girl didn't know how to put into words how she was feeling, it would always be a struggle for her to express her emotions, when she was much better with logic and facts. But Renesmee Carlie Cullen finally knew exactly how to finally _show_ how she felt about her wolf's love and acceptance, and that brought a warm smile to her face.

This time she'd find a rock for Jack.


	21. Epilogue

**A/N **This is for you, Buffy. :^)

**The Imprinted Chronicles: Book Three**

Epilogue

The waves crashed across the rocky eastern shoreline, churning and foaming as the wind picked up. The weather would turn bad soon, there were dark clouds rolling over the horizon, and there was no one on this beach today except for one. A lone figure sat on the ground staring at the water, a cowboy hat over his eyes and a cigarette hanging out of his lips.

Head bowed and arms draped on his knees, Ricardo de Vaena smiled slightly around his cigarette.

"You know, I never did figure out how that little shit got out of the water," Rico said, turning and looking at the wolf standing behind him. He grinned and tilted his hat up so that he could see Jack better. "But at least he's dead. Hurt like hell, too, I couldn't move for a week."

"Some things are painful, old friend," Jack replied, sinking to his heels a few feet away from the vampire. "Like finding your friend has been trying to kill your Packmates. Your creation spoke your name, I was able to piece the rest together for my Pack."

The ancient wolf was silent, and Rico could feel the sadness coming off of him. The vampire sighed and stood up, brushing his hands off and flicking his cigarette.

"Well, Jackie boy, I suppose you've come to kill me," Rico sighed dramatically. "I tried to avoid it, but since ya followed me, I guess that's about that. I suppose I should say in my defense, I did warn your Beta that he and I were gonna have to have a talk one of these days. Not my fault if he didn't take me seriously."

Dark eyes regarded him solemnly, and Rico grimaced. "Aww, Jackie, don't look at me like that. I'm a vampire, this shit is what we do, you knew that." The wolf continued to watch him, and Rico scuffed his boot in the dirt. "Can we get to the killing already? I'm starting to get emotional here."

To Rico's surprise, the ancient wolf chuckled and then rose to his own feet. "I will have to kill you, Cold One," Jack admitted. "But there is something that we must do first." As the wolf explained, Rico listened, the storm building around them and causing the ocean to spray across his legs.

"Just you and me against the Volturi, huh?" the vampire finally asked, and then he spit on the ground. "Save the girl, save the day?"

"And then I'll kill you," the wolf seemed to feel the need to point out, and Rico barked out a laugh.

The ancient wolf smirked as Rico began to smile, and as the vampire raised gleaming eyes at Jack, his fangs flashed dangerously. "I've owed a lady a hello for a while now, so I think that can be arranged. Jackie boy, you always did know how to make my life more interesting."

As the pair headed down the beach, the vampire gave his friend a light shove in the arm. "You know I'm still gonna kill you first, Jackie."

"If I remember correctly, Cold One," the water could hear the wolf saying as the vampire found himself shoved right back, "Last time I had to put _you_ back together piece by piece..."

* * *

Collin walked alone through the forest, hands stuffed in his pockets and lost in his own thoughts.

A sense of deep sadness had filled him since his fight Neel, and today especially that sadness threatened to overwhelm him. Not prone to brooding, Collin was struggling with his feelings of inexplicable guilt and frustration. He didn't know why, when he had killed the worst vampire they had ever come across, that he didn't feel proud of himself. He didn't know why he felt this overpowering sensation of being lost, of being left behind.

It was disconcerting.

It occurred to Collin that what he was feeling could be grief at the loss of a Packmate. Technically Jack was still in their Pack, but as of yesterday he was so far away that only Jake could sense him anymore, and they were all deeply worried about him. The truth was that it was very possible their Packmate would never come back, and the fact that a brother was facing such a dangerous enemy without them at his side was painful. Even Owen, their newest brother, had felt that loss, although it was hard for the young, simple-minded wolf to understand. All in all, it had been a rough time since Jack had left. No one had realized just how important he had been to the La Push Pack, how his experience and quiet wisdom had given them a sense of security.

If ever there was a time they needed his experience, it was now. They had three she-wolves, and even the Calgary Alpha had been confused over it. Tlokwali females were rare, one to every twenty or thirty males, even at the height of their numbers. There should be at least sixty wolves in Jake's Pack to make that number make sense, but there it was. Three she-wolves. And Collin had always thought they had their hands full with just Leah.

In the last few weeks in had become clear that the females were clashing. Leah had tried to take Callie under her wing the way she had done with Sims, but Callie wanted nothing to do with Leah. In fact, she wanted nothing to do with any of them. As easily as Owen had taken to being Pack, Callie was resisting it. Realizing the secrets that the Pack had been keeping from the reservation hadn't given Callie a sense of understanding and acceptance among them. Instead it had given her a sense of personal betrayal.

Callie was locked into this secret now and felt like she was no better than Brady, and she hated the fact that she had turned on her family.

Personally, Collin didn't know why she had any loyalty to the family to begin with. Even Brady had learned some things about Callie that no one else had known, and it made them all deeply unhappy. Brady wasn't the only one that had grown up in a tough situation, and like Brady, having that spilled out for all of them to see had left Callie guarded and furious. Their newest she-wolf had still not managed to phase back, because their attempts to get close to her, to help her, had only been met with hostility and snapping teeth.

Jake had told her that he was giving her a few more days to try and adjust before he was going to force her to phase back human. It would be unpleasant, the forcing, but eventually people would start wondering where she was. Callie had run off before, but she had always found her way back home eventually. The Jennings family had been grumbling about that "fool girl" taking off again, and they would be sure to notice if she didn't show up soon.

As he walked, the scent of the-wolf in his thoughts filled Collin's nostrils. Snapping teeth aside, it was hard not to be drawn to the females of their kind, and Collin had spent too many days holed up with Paul and Cassie, relying on them. He needed to get out and do something, try to shake himself free of this melancholy, a melancholy that he knew worried his papa wolf deeply.

Something moved in the brush off to his left, and Collin caught the faintest glimpse of a grey back. When phased, Callie was almost a mirror image of Jared, something that annoyed the other wolf immensely. But Collin didn't mind Callie the way that Jared did. Collin didn't have anything personal against her and in his mind, Callie's life so far had been rough, like Brady's had. It didn't make her bad, just…hard. Collin thought that Callie could really benefit from something in life cutting her a break.

Even as he thought that, the grey she-wolf decided stalking Collin through the woods wasn't nearly as preferable as trying to hamstring him. Since he wasn't exactly sure she wouldn't do it, Collin sidestepped her attack and phased himself. The she-wolf snarled in frustration and twisted, darting at him again, and this time Collin let her. She grunted when she smacked into his side, not expecting that he would stand there like an idiot, and Collin let her weight roll him. He didn't think he was an idiot at all. He thought he was an awfully nice guy to let her beat him up like this.

Callie snarled at the insinuation that he was "letting her", and she attacked him again. Collin let his tail thump the ground lazily as she snapped at his shoulder, knowing from her thoughts that she was frustrated and figuring that today sucked enough anyways, he might as well let her chew on something tangible for a while.

Startled, Callie paused mid-bite and then slunk backwards, staring at him suspiciously. It made absolutely no sense that he would just let her bite on him.

Collin wagged his tail again and stretched out on the ground more comfortably. She was his Packmate, and she was upset. She had stayed wolf too long, and they were all worried about that. If biting Collin helped her calm down long enough to phase back, then that was okay.

The she-wolf stared at him, and then lay down herself a few yards away. She snuffed and refused to look at him, but Collin heard her thoughts flicker unhappily. She didn't want to phase human again. Then it meant going home. Then it meant having to live this lie as well. Miserably, Callie put her nose on her paws.

Collin whined, a sympathetic noise, but when he started to rise to go to her, she growled warningly. He ignored her growl, but he did stay on his belly, edging over towards her a few inches at a time. Callie wanted him to go away, but she also was tired and scared, and this whole thing had been really fucked up. Being high as hell when she phased had made it even more fucked up, and those few moments before phasing had shoved the chemicals out of her system had been the most frightening trip of her life. So when Collin edged closer, she continued to growl, but she didn't move. When he crossed the final inches and stretched out alongside her smaller wolf form, Callie's growl softened and broke off into an unhappy whine.

Thinking that as shitty of a time he had been having, that this girl had been having it worse, Collin leaned his weight into her and settled his nose behind her ear. Callie thought that he should get the hell off of her, and her mind paraded over all of the images of things she _didn't_ want to do in wolf form. Amused, Collin closed his eyes and thumped his tail slowly. He didn't think those last two were even possible, in human or wolf form. She didn't think that he was very imaginative, and Collin thought she didn't understand the laws of gravity, and somewhere along the lines of sexual speculation, Callie calmed down enough to phase back.

Realizing what was happening, Collin followed suit, but he didn't move away from where he lay stretched out along side of her, letting his eyes sweep casually down her naked form.

"I hate this," Callie said harshly, and Collin nodded.

"I get it," he replied softly, starting to shift away to give her some privacy and space. "I hate this a lot of the time, too."

To his surprise Callie rolled into him, locking her arm around his neck and pulling his face down to hers. When she kissed him fiercely, as if looking for something that still was in her control, something that still made sense, Collin got that as well. He had been here, had done that, and was still doing that. As Collin threaded his hands into her hair and kissed her back hungrily, Collin stopped thinking about what he had done and why he had done it, and he simply allowed himself to feel instead. After all, sex had always tamed the wolf inside, and his wolf could be a terrible, terrible thing.

As he lost himself in the body of his Packmate, Collin decided there were worse ways to make himself forget.

* * *

Carlisle had known it was coming, even before the tall woman slipped into his office, her face still cut and bruised and her arm in a sling. She looked on the verge of tears, both guilty and sad in scores, but determination was in her eyes as she sank into the opposing chair in front of his desk. The coven leader sighed and set his pen down, gazing at his protégé sadly.

"Are you sure you need to leave?"

His words caused tears to well up in her eyes, but the young doctor wiped them away with her good hand.

"Yeah, I think I really do," Misty said after a moment taken to compose herself, trying to keep her voice steady. "Maybe it's weak, but I can't do it. I can't sit here and try to work without thinking that he's right behind me. I accepted that residency at John's Hopkins…I have learned so much from you, Carlisle, and I can still learn so much more, but think this will be a good experience for me."

"Neel is dead, Misty," Carlisle said gently, reaching over his desk to take her warm hand in his cool one. "He won't ever be able to hurt you again. But I understand that these last several years of always looking over your shoulder have been a tremendous strain. A new place, some new faces might be the best thing for you."

Misty nodded, unable to wipe her tears now that Carlisle was holding her hand, and he smiled kindly. "It would be a lie to say that I won't miss you dearly, both personally and professionally."

He released her hand and she immediately wiped her face on her sleeve, sucking in a deep steadying breath and smiling weakly. "I don't want to live my life scared to not be near your family, Carlisle. I'm so grateful, you have no idea how grateful I am for all you have done, but I need to not lean on you anymore."

Carlisle understood, so he rose and went around the desk, helping her to her feet. He pressed a light kiss to her temple and then stepped back. "I'm proud of you, Misty. You are always welcome in my home, and at this hospital too, if I have any say."

"Thank you," Misty whispered, and as she hugged him tightly around the neck, Carlisle knew that she wasn't just thanking him. Misty never had been good with goodbyes, and knowing her, she'd leave tonight. She'd get the hell out of town and once again try to leave her demons behind her. So he held on for an extra moment, knowing this was her goodbye. Then she pulled away and sniffed, laughing at herself. "I went to say goodbye to Esme, and I ended up bawling like a baby. I did better this time."

Carlisle smiled at that, and patted her on the arm before leaning back on his deck. Misty cleared her throat, her tears drying as she put back on her smile and went into professional mode. "I left most of my patients with the other doctors, but three of them will need you instead. I'll make sure the files are with your secretary before I leave. I left my notes on Nessie at your house, but I think you should look at what I found. She's got the faintest traces of a viral infection I've never seen. And please tell Alice thank you for me as well. I tried to call her, but she didn't answer her phone."

"Of course, Misty," Carlisle promised, grateful that his protégé didn't know his daughter had been taken. Misty would have been devastated.

The female nodded and then gave him one last smile. She started to say something, but then nodded. "Well, I suppose that's it. I'll let you know when I get settled, and you have my number. If you need anything, anything at all for you or your family, just call me."

Carlisle returned her smile and tried not to feel sad about her loss as she headed towards the door. She started to leave, but then she paused.

"Hey, Dr. Cullen?" Misty said, swinging around in the doorway. Her face seemed younger than it had in years, as carefree as it had ever been since the first time he had noticed the tall woman in the front row of his guest lecture class. She had kept asking him questions then, questions that never failed to impress him. She was still impressing him now as she grinned at him and gave him a wink. "Thanks again for getting rid of my ex. He was kind of a jerk, but I'll make sure to pick better next time."

Carlisle chuckled and shook his head as he settled back down into his desk. "Actually, Misty, it wasn't me. Someone very young and very brave did that, but it wasn't me."

Misty blinked at that. Her memories from the time Neel had dragged her out of the window had been fuzzy at best. She opened her mouth to ask him one more question, one more question that for everyone's safety she had never asked, but then she closed it again and nodded. "Well, tell them thanks." As Carlisle went back to work, the doctor closed the door behind her quietly. Out in the hallway, Misty took a deep steadying breath, and then she exhaled heavily.

With a small smile and the realization that the world had become a much better place, Dr. Misty Foster limped away gratefully.

* * *

Hope could come in many forms, and it could be taken away in just as many. This time hope was taken away in the form of a phone call.

While understanding that Samantha had experienced a traumatic event in the loss of her mother, the scholarship review board couldn't allow her lowered GPA, her excessive tardiness, and her alleged gang activity to pass by unaccounted for. There were others who were runner's up in receiving the same scholarship Samantha had earned, and they had spotless records. The review board was sorry, but her scholarship was revoked. They had requested a favor, after all they weren't heartless, and the Stanford admissions department had agreed to still accept her if she could pay her own tuition.

Samantha whispered thank you and hung up the phone. There was simply no way.

For a moment she simply stood there in Embry's kitchen. She had known this might happen, had tried her best to prepare herself for it, but Samantha still felt like the rug had been pulled out from beneath her feet. Her hands on the countertop could have kept her from swaying, but these days even that much weakness was hard to stomach. She leaned on nothing and stayed on her feet.

The Alpha wanted to know what was wrong. Samantha pushed back against the imprint bond. Right now she needed Jake out of her head, and she needed him to stay away. Please, just stay away.

After a moment's hesitation, Samantha felt the imprint bond between herself and Jake close down as far as the Alpha could close it, giving her so much privacy that the lack of feeling him was a physical discomfort. It was only then that she allowed herself to sit down at the kitchen table, her head in her hands and silent tears rolling down her face. That scholarship had been her dream, but Samantha going to college had been her mother's dream. Samantha could still do it, she could still go to college, just somewhere closer. She'd get a job, hell she'd get several jobs, and she'd figure out a way.

Samantha wiped her tears away and as she slipped out of the house, walking towards town, she told herself in no uncertain terms that if she had to do this all over again, she'd still make the same decision. Without her strength added into the Pack, Seth could have died. No regrets. Sometimes life sucked and that was that. But Seth was okay, and she still had good enough grades to get into other, cheaper colleges. And she still had Embry.

Embry was working right now, and Samantha had stopped asking him to let her back into the dojo. When he was ready to trust her there, he'd let her back in. She was still hurt by it, but she understood that she had hurt him badly, and so Samantha had given him space. But losing her scholarship hurt, and it was instinct to go to him, to seek out his arms and his smile and his comfort.

She was different now than the person he had fallen in love with, but she knew he still loved her, he loved her deeply. Embry wouldn't turn her away.

A year and a half ago, Samantha hadn't known how to turn to someone for support, and she still wasn't very good at it. But Embry had earned her trust, and Seth and Leah had done the same. She knew that in their attempts at a truce that both she and Jake were trying, and it wasn't so much trust as it was slowly earning respect. If this had happened a year and a half ago, Samantha would have closed her eyes and stuffed it all deep down inside and never let anyone see it. Now she padded down the street, deeply grateful that she had a place to seek shelter in.

The wind was blowing towards her as she approached the dojo, a storm was building, and Samantha's sharp ears caught the sounds of voices. It was Embry, but it was also Quil. As far as she knew, this was the first time that Embry and Quil had been in the same place alone, talking, and Samantha paused, knowing that it could be a bad thing for her to interrupt. She was about twenty paces away when Samantha decided to turn around. She'd be able to talk to Embry later, and Embry missed his best friend more than he realized. This time was good for them.

As she turned around, Samantha heard Quil say in a quiet voice, "Emb, whatever it is, it can't be that bad. You're obviously not doing well, and you know I'll do my best not to let it slip."

Her boyfriend sighed heavily, and the desk chair squeaked. There was silence and then Embry growled, sounding angry. "Hell. _Hell_, man, what am I supposed to tell her? Every night she tries to get closer, every night she pushes for us to be together, and I'm tired of fighting her. I'm tired of fighting _over_ her. I'm tired of fighting the Pack and I'm tired of fighting my wolf…I'm just so fucking tired of _fighting_."

"You're fighting your wolf?" Quil sounded deeply worried at that. "How much more than before, Embry?"

"Ever since she phased, Quil," Embry groaned, sounding angry. "Every fucking minute since she phased I've felt my control slipping more and more. How the hell am I supposed to live with someone when I'm scared to death of what I'll do when my control finally gives? Did you know that when she and Leah go out at night, I actually wish for her not to come back until I leave for work in the morning? Hell, I won't even let her in here just so I can have some _peace_. And she wants to know why I won't sleep with her, but what am I supposed to say? Sims, I love you, you were my white picket fucking _wet dream_ come true, but I'm done with—"

Whatever he was done with, she couldn't hear. It was too much, it was too hard. She didn't need to hear him break her heart any more, he had made it perfectly clear. Her presence made his wolf lose control, her presence made his life too hard, and Embry was cracking under it.

As she padded back down the street, away from the dojo that had been her safe haven, her home since coming here, Samantha couldn't say she was surprised. Hurt, broken hearted, but not surprised. Embry had been trying to tell her this for months, if not in so many words. He was a good man, the best man she had ever known, and he had tried so hard not to hurt her, but she was hurting _him_. And Samantha knew Embry. She knew he would sit there and take it, would do his damnedest to do right by her no matter how wrong it was for him. He would protect her from this, no matter what the cost, the way he had so far.

But you see, Samantha had always, _always_ done everything she could to protect Embry. Even when it was hard. Even when it hurt. Even when she wanted to scream and rage and hate him for it.

At least he had taken her to prom before he broke her heart. The thought rolled unbidden into her head, making Samantha smile bitterly, made her sit on their bed and cry before forcing herself to have strength.

Hope could come in many forms, and it could be taken away in just as many. This time hope was in freedom, so Samantha stuffed everything she had brought with her to La Push in her old duffle bag, wrote 'I love you' on a paper towel in the kitchen, and then she did the hardest thing she had ever done.

Samantha Carter gave Embry Call his freedom back.

* * *

The call was too strong. It was too much for Leah to take anymore.

Her Alpha had another she-wolf, two in fact. He was another male wolf strong, and he had allies that strengthened him. He didn't need her. He wanted to keep her, but he didn't need her. He cared about her, but he didn't need her. The threat of Calgary was minimized as long as Jake didn't decide to be an idiot, the threat of Neel was gone as long as vampires couldn't de-combust, and they were the safest they had been in the last couple years. Jacob Black would fight for her and die for her, but he didn't _need_ her.

_But something out there did_.

This time when the call came, Leah didn't even try to fight it. She shut herself down, blocked herself as far away from her Alpha as she could as she picked the keys to her motorcycle up, pretending she was in a pissed off mood so Jake would instinctively steer clear. She knew what she was doing was reckless, was dangerous, was stupid even, but she wouldn't live her life like this. She wouldn't live in a cage, not even one of Jake's making. Gilded bars were still bars. It was time to break out, because Leah Clearwater had somewhere else to be.

Her mother was at the store and wouldn't understand, and Sue would be both hurt and angry. Her brother was dick-deep in a fucking Emily/Sam repeat, and if he ever came up for air long enough to notice, he'd be pissed. Leah planned on being far enough away at that point for him to not be able to drag her back kicking and screaming. Knowing that Jake would never let her leave if he had any clue what she was up to, Leah didn't even let herself grab anything besides her father's old wallet, which she stuck in her back pocket.

Supposedly Leah had gotten her motorcycle "fixed" after Seth's accident. She'd sell it on the road if need be.

Taking a deep breath and forcing herself not to bolt like she had ever other time, Leah opened the door normally and came face to face with Sims. The other she-wolf looked like hell. Her eyes were hard as agates and dark underneath, and she was trembling like a crack addict. Although to be honest, except for the duffle bag on her shoulder and the red splotches from crying on her face, Sims didn't really look any different than her standard these days.

Sims looked at Leah. Leah looked at Sims. Both she-wolves frowned simultaneously.

"You're really going to do that shit to Embry?" Leah asked, tilting her head, and Sims narrowed her eyes.

"It's what he needs from me," Sims replied softly. "You're really going to do this shit to Jake?"

Leah grunted and glanced over Sims's head at the reservation that had been her only home, her only world. "It's what _I_ need from me," she said simply, her eyes once more locking on Sims's.

Sims looked at Leah. Leah looked at Sims. Then suddenly Sims grinned, a fierce, vicious grin, tossing her bag inside the house behind Leah. Leah knew what that meant, that Sims was planning on coming with her, but that she was also planning on coming back one day. That duffle bag was her fucking emotional security blanket. As for Leah, well…she would have to see.

The older woman smirked, saying, "Invite yourself along, why don't you?"

Sims grinned as Leah shut the door behind her. "This is really gonna piss them off, you know that?" Sims mentioned, not looking particularly worried about it. Leah knew that Embry had been Sims' strongest tie to them, and if she thought Embry needed her gone, leaving wasn't that hard of a thing.

Leah raised an eyebrow at Sims and then returned the grin. "That's never bothered you before," Leah decided. "No reason to start now."

The taller she-wolf could feel her Alpha stirring, curious how the rush of annoyance had turned to excitement in Leah's veins. Leah hadn't been afraid to go by herself, but this was better. So much better. Leah started up the bike, her Alpha's imprint sliding on the seat behind her, and Leah smirked at Sims from over her shoulder. "Hey baby, wanna ride?"

"Depends what's between your legs," Sims shot back, not bothering with a helmet this time as she gripped the seat beneath her lightly. This time she was as indestructible as Leah was. "If Jake figures out we're about to bail, it'll get messy. You better have a plan, Leah."

The older she-wolf barked out a laugh and revved the engine, peeling out as she gunned the bike down the street. "Plans are for pussies."

The pull southward hit Leah so strongly that she nearly cried out from the relief that she was running, and this time she was going to make sure no one stopped her. When the Yamaha YZF-R1 hit 180 outside of La Push, and Brady lifted his muzzle to the sky in warning, neither one of them looked back.

* * *

The world was not an ideal place.

If the world had been an ideal place, Jacob Black would have been fixing a bike in his garage right now, human and normal and talking to his two best friends. Embry would be pissed because his girlfriend had left him, and Quil would be grumbling about Embry at least having someone for as long as he did. Jake would call them both losers and be daydreaming about a clumsy girl that wore her shorts nice and short, so short that he always got a pleasant look at her thighs every time she stumbled and bent over to catch her balance. Instead the Alpha was walking into a place as far away from his furious Pack as he could safely risk.

The world was _far_ from ideal, and it weighed heavily on the Alpha's shoulders as he strode across the floor at Barney's and slumped down into the barstool closest to the grill. His wolf had run that grill. Jake missed him.

The Alpha's seat was on the far side from where the Saturday night regulars were gathering, and as busy as the bar already was becoming, it was doubtful that anyone was coming all the way down here to get him a drink. Jake didn't care, it was enough to have a moment to himself, a moment alone. His Pack had to obey him, but they were livid that he had ordered them to not give chase after the two she-wolves. They were terrified that in letting them go, Jake had made a terrible mistake. Seth and Jake had come to blows for the first time in their lives when Jake refused to let Seth follow his sister, and Paul had made it clear in no uncertain terms that in every way that Jake had managed to fuck, this was his biggest mistake.

Embry currently wasn't speaking to anyone.

"You look like you need a drink. Any particular reason?"

Jake looked up at the bartender, a petite brunette with long hair pulled back into a ponytail and knowing smile playing about her lips. She leaned against the bar casually, her toned arms bared beneath the dimmed lights and covered in a faint sheen. Despite her smile, Jake could see that she was tired. She was the only bartender there at the moment, and he couldn't believe she had left the masses to come get his order. Her nametag read "Hi my name is Buffy", but she had written in black marker beneath it, "Ask me about vampires and I'll stake you."

The Alpha couldn't help but laugh.

The bartender arched an eyebrow at him and then plopped down a shot glass, filling it full of an amber liquid before sauntering away. Jake chuckled and shook his head before tossing back the shot. He grimaced at the taste of whiskey but enjoyed the warm tingling of the alcohol as it went down his throat. He supposed in a far from ideal world, where the only Packmate that wouldn't hate him for his decisions was the one he had just sent off to their death in Europe, at least Jake could pass for twenty-one.

A couple minutes later the bartender was back. She refilled his shot glass and this time she leaned further across the bar, taking his shot and tossing it back herself, leaving him with an empty glass. Jake couldn't stop the grin from coming to his face, and so he stood up and scooted down a few seats, closer to where she was at so she wouldn't have to walk as far. This time Buffy poured a double shot and drank half of it before sliding the other half his way. She was testing him, Jake could tell, and Jake wasn't the kind to back down. So he finished the shot, and then gave her a smile.

"Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you," he told her in his low rumbling voice. "Just the vampire thing, it's more ironic than you realize."

Buffy poured him another shot and then set a beer down in front of him, smirking. "You know there are worse things out there than vampires. Taking whatever the bartender feels like serving you is one of them."

The Alpha chuckled and lifted the shot, rolling the glass between his fingers. "We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I think they are the fucking worst thing invented. And thanks for the drinks."

Buffy nodded and winked at him before going back to the other end of the bar. She stayed down there for a while, long enough for Jake to stare at his phone and wish that Jack would call, or Leah would call, or hell even his imprint would call. When he looked up, the bartender was back. This time she poured a shot for herself and only for herself.

"_I_ needed a drink," she informed him teasingly and Jake grinned, tipping his beer towards her politely. Hell if she didn't take a swig of it too before passing it back. Buffy leaned in again and gave him a smile. "So I'll ask it again and then you're on your own, big guy. You look like you need a drink. Any particular reason?"

Jake thought about it, his thoughts causing his grin to slip from his face. He glanced at the bartender, and then Jake exhaled heavily. "You know that shit about if you let something free, it'll come back to you? I think sometimes when you let something free, it just leaves. But who knows? Maybe I'll just sit here and wait to find out how badly I fucked this one up. I'm fucking tired of trying to anticipate everything."

"You lost a girl today," Buffy acknowledged, pouring him one last shot, and Jake shrugged, his face twisting in a sardonic smile as he pulled out a couple bills and set them on the table.

"Two actually," he admitted ruefully, shaking his head. "And I don't think they were ever mine to lose."

"Dumped twice in one day?"

The Alpha growled and tossed back his shot. "Yeah, something like that," he muttered. "Apparently I'm a fucking cage. I suppose it's stupid to let someone get hurt just to prove a point, but yeah. I don't know anymore. I let them leave."

The bartender listened but said nothing, and Jake glanced down at his phone. It was vibrating with a text message from Paul. It would probably involve curse words and something about Seth making everyone miserable. He sure as hell had been making Jake miserable, the Beta hadn't stopped snarling in Jake's head all day.

"Hey, thanks for listening and thanks again for the drinks. I need to get back." As much fun as it would be to sit here and drown the overwhelming feeling of abandonment he had under a steady stream of liquor, Jake knew he needed to go back home. He might be tired, but it was his job to anticipate everything.

Buffy shrugged and went to get his change. When she came back, Buffy waggled a couple dollars before sticking them in her pocket and handing him the rest of his change back. "I earned this," she told him with a smirk. "I have good listening skills."

Jake grinned again and tossed an extra bill down on the bar. "Yeah, you do." The bartender pulled out her black marker and to his surprise, she took Jake's hand, writing something across his wrist. Then she winked at him as he glanced at her in surprise, his gaze turning speculative.

Buffy pocketed the extra dollar and went back to work, and as the Alpha headed out of the bar, he thought about the words she had written. When he went to start his bike, Jake made sure to turn the volume of his phone up, so that he could make sure he heard it over his motorcycle's engine. At any time he might get a call. At any time, he could start being really right and Leah could start being really wrong, and she might need him. And like a fucking punk, he'd be waiting for it.

As he was pressing the volume button, the Alpha looked down at his wrist and read the bartender's words again.

_When you get tired of waiting, let me know. _

Was he tired of waiting? Yeah, Jake was pretty sure that he was. He had been waiting for too many people for too long. They had made it exactly clear where they stood, and Jake was ready for once to be on the better end of all of this.

With a smile on his face, the Alpha cut the engine, pocketed his keys, and turned his phone back to vibrate. Then he went back in.

* * *

Deep in the Andes Mountains, a Pack crept towards a cave.

It loomed in front of the wolves, dark and menacing and impossible for even their eyes to penetrate. At their leaders' backs, the wolves shifted nervously. There were fewer and fewer of themselves these days. And the frightening part was that as they looked into the cave where their enemy was sheltered, every wolf knew that there were even more of _them._

Their Alpha, Kalísoliyáť, slunk forward first, his movements silent even to their ears as he edged towards the cave. It didn't matter if they were outnumbered, they had something to kill. Knowing their fate, the Pack followed, halting only when their youngest leader paused and looked to the north. Taye raised his golden muzzle and stared, shifting as if being pulled by something that he couldn't see. There was something…His Alpha wanted his attention back to the task at hand, and Taye showed his teeth to Kalísoliyáť angrily before turning away. Angry or not, they were here to fight and Taye was ready.

Ignoring what may or may not be coming, the young wolf was the first to follow Kalísoliyáť into the darkness to face what lay waiting within.

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Well, there you have it! Welcome to halfway through TIC! The series will be six stories long, and we've gotten through the first three. If you hadn't guessed already, I'll go ahead and announce it: B4 is Leah's story. For those of you that wanted more of Cassie and Paul's wedding, I'm planning on writing a one-shot for them eventually. Just a head's up, I'm taking a much needed break between this story and B4, so expect B4 to go up no sooner than mid-July. I know that's a while, but I need to recharge my brain.

Thanks for everyone who read and reviewed this fic, and a MASSIVE thanks to both my amazing beta TheNotoriousLIP and the lj Packgirls. You all are so wonderful, and your support is so often my inspiration. And for those who took a risk on reading a Renesmee/OC child imprint fic, thank you. I know it was uncomfortable at times, and your sticking it out means a lot to me. Also, anyone who's interested in the research material I used to write B3 and the backstory of the Tlokwali, I'll provide the list after this.

Last but not least, the awesome people over at my live journal have posted some Brady one-shots for my _Brady One-shot Challenge_. Go check them out, I promise you won't be disappointed!

**Resources****:**

_Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest_, by Ella E. Clark

_Native Peoples Of The Olympic Peninsula_, Edited by Jacilee Wray

_The Ceremonial Societies of the Quileute Indians_, by Leo Joachim Frachtenberg (This is AWESOME, btw)

www (dot) quileutenation (dot) org

www (dot) native-languages (dot) org/

h t t p : / / content (dot) lib (dot) washington (dot) edu/cmpweb/index (dot) html

www (dot) nuuchahnulth (dot) org/index (dot) html


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